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load line

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noun Nautical.

Also called Plimsoll line. any of various lines marked on the sides of a cargo vessel to indicate the depth to which a vessel may be immersed under certain conditions.Compare freeboard(def 1a).
the line made by the surface of the water on the hull of a loaded ship.

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Origin of load line

First recorded in 1880–85
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for load line

Historical Examples of load line

  • Load-line, line painted on the outside of a vessel to mark the extreme of immersion in loading her with a cargo.

    The Nuttall Encyclopaedia

    Edited by Rev. James Wood

British Dictionary definitions for load line

load line

noun

nautical a pattern of lines painted on the hull of a ship, approximately midway between the bow and the stern, indicating the various levels that the waterline should reach if the ship is properly loaded under given circumstances
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012