bowse
1 Americanverb (used with object)
noun
verb
Example Sentences
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A "cad" is a person fit for no other occupation than carrying somebody else's hawk; "booze" is a derivation of the falconer's "bowse," to drink.
From Time Magazine Archive
Drest as though bold Robin Hood10 Would, with his maid Marian, Sup and bowse from horn and can.
From Keats: Poems Published in 1820 by M. (Margaret) Robertson
When the breech of the gun is above the port-sill, hook the garnet and the thwart-ship-tackle to the cascabel, and bowse on both.
From Ordnance Instructions for the United States Navy. 1866. Fourth edition. by United States. Navy Dept. Bureau of Ordnance
All hands were now employed in setting up the lee rigging, fishing the spritsail-yard, lashing the galley, and getting tackles upon the martingale, to bowse it to windward.
From Two Years Before the Mast by Richard Henry Dana
We'll bowse about till Daddie Care Sing whistle owre the lave o't.
From Poems and Songs of Robert Burns by Robert Burns
When the decks were cleared, the guns bowsed out, Prince went below with Nat.
From "Carry On, Mr. Bowditch" by Jean Lee Latham
The jib was hoisted and bowsed well up, then the backstays, and the topmast-stays were tautened.
From Ernest Bracebridge School Days by William I. Thomas
In bad weather it is kept hooked, bowsed taut, and the end expended through the ring-bolt and round the arms of the rear axle.
From Ordnance Instructions for the United States Navy. 1866. Fourth edition. by United States. Navy Dept. Bureau of Ordnance
Double gaskets were passed round the yards, rolling tackles and other gear bowsed taught, and everything made as secure as could be.
From Two Years Before the Mast by Richard Henry Dana
A tackle was then put on the bow, which was bowsed down until the boat could be dragged straight ahead.
From Scientific American Supplement, No. 648, June 2, 1888. by Various
A purchase used in bowsing down the eyes of the lower rigging over the mast-heads; lifting objects from the hold; getting anchors over the side, &c.
From The Sailor's Word-Book An Alphabetical Digest of Nautical Terms, including Some More Especially Military and Scientific, but Useful to Seamen; as well as Archaisms of Early Voyagers, etc. by Sir Edward Belcher
Hauling upon a tack is called "bowsing upon a tack," and when they would have the men pull all together, they cry, "Bowse away."
From The Sailor's Word-Book An Alphabetical Digest of Nautical Terms, including Some More Especially Military and Scientific, but Useful to Seamen; as well as Archaisms of Early Voyagers, etc. by Sir Edward Belcher
"Oakes is bowsing out his jib with his brother baronet, as we sailors say, and I have hauled out of the line, without a signal."
From The Two Admirals by James Fenimore Cooper
Place a tackle across the deck ready for bowsing the gun into its carriage through the port.
From Ordnance Instructions for the United States Navy. 1866. Fourth edition. by United States. Navy Dept. Bureau of Ordnance
The bars of the capstan are swifted, by passing a rope-swifter over all their ends, and bowsing it well taut.
From The Sailor's Word-Book An Alphabetical Digest of Nautical Terms, including Some More Especially Military and Scientific, but Useful to Seamen; as well as Archaisms of Early Voyagers, etc. by Sir Edward Belcher
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
