forestaff

American  

[fawr-staf, -stahf, fohr-] / ˈfɔrˌstæf, -ˌstɑf, ˈfoʊr- /

noun

plural

forestaves, forestaffs

1. cross-staff.

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Etymology

Origin of forestaff

First recorded in 1660–70; fore- + staff ¹

Example Sentences

The pilots were all Indians, and they used the forestaff and quadrant for their observations.

From Project Gutenberg

However, I supported my own and the spirits of my little company by telling them of the early navigators; how Columbus, Candish, Drake, Schouten and other heroic marine worthies of distant times had navigated the globe, discovered new worlds, penetrated into the most secret solitudes of the deep without any notion of longitude and with no better instruments to take the sun's height than the forestaff and astrolabe.

From Project Gutenberg

Here also our gunner took an observation with his forestaff, to determine our latitude, and he found now, that having marched about thirty-three days northward, we were in 6 degrees 22 minutes south latitude.

From Project Gutenberg