hawse

American  

[hawz, haws] / hɔz, hɔs /

noun

1. the part of a bow where the hawseholes are located.

2. a hawsehole or hawsepipe.

3. the distance or space between the bow of an anchored vessel and the point on the surface of the water above the anchor.

4. the relative position or arrangement of the port and starboard anchor cables when both are used to moor a vessel.

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verb (used without object)

hawsed, hawsing

1. (of a vessel) to pitch heavily at anchor.

idioms

1. to hawse, with both bow anchors out.

   a ship riding to hawse.

hawse British  

/ hɔːz /

noun

1. the part of the bows of a vessel where the hawseholes are

2. short for hawsehole hawsepipe

3. the distance from the bow of an anchored vessel to the anchor

4. the arrangement of port and starboard anchor ropes when a vessel is riding on both anchors

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verb

1. (intr) (of a vessel) to pitch violently when at anchor

Etymology

Origin of hawse

before 1000; Middle English hals, Old English heals bow of a ship, literally, neck; cognate with Old Norse hals in same senses, Old Frisian, Old Saxon, Old High German hals neck, throat, Latin collus (< *kolsos )

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

hawse hawsed hawsing

The stainless-steel hawse pipes feature integrated cup holders that keep a beverage from spilling when the adjacent rod goes off.

From Time Magazine Archive

At sundown, Davy Jones boarded the ship through a hawse pipe.

From Time Magazine Archive

It was rough and scouring, like rusty anchor chain reeling through a hawse.

From "Strange the Dreamer" by Laini Taylor

And her bows rose, and there was a rush of water along the deck, and there came the noise of falling water from hawse pipes and scuppers.

From The Clammer and the Submarine by Hopkins, William John

What are you doing with Brig's hawse, Hardy?

From Bat Wing Bowles by Coolidge, Dane

Instead of setting to leeward, the schooner was now meeting a powerful tide of some four or five knots, which hawsed her up to windward with irresistible force.

From The Sea Lions The Lost Sealers by Cooper, James Fenimore

The sayles ar hawsed, a pleasant cole dothe blowe.

From The Ship of Fools, Volume 1 by Barclay, Alexander

She was beating down against the sea-breeze, with a strong current under her lee bow hawsing her up to windward, and was making very rapid progress.

From A Middy of the Slave Squadron A West African Story by Mays, D.L.

I thought that the flood had made, and that it took us a little on our lee-bow, hawsing us up to windward.

From Afloat and Ashore A Sea Tale by Cooper, James Fenimore