yardarm

[ yahrd-ahrm ]

/ ˈyɑrdˌɑrm /

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noun Nautical.

either of the outer portions of the yard of a square sail.

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Origin of yardarm

First recorded in 1545–55; yard¹ + arm¹

Words nearby yardarm

Yarborough, yarco, yard, yardage, yardang, yardarm, yardbird, yard goods, yard grass, Yardie, yarding

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2022

How to use yardarm in a sentence

Overhead the yardarm blinkers were signaling, and directly over Sara Lee's head a great white searchlight swept the water ahead.
The Amazing Interlude|Mary Roberts Rinehart
Expect me then soon, for I hope to run athwart you, yardarm and yardarm, as an old salt we once knew used to say.
Jack Harkaway's Boy Tinker Among The Turks|Bracebridge Hemyng
I dreamed all night that I was in the hands of the Americans, with a rope round my neck and about to be run up at the yardarm.
Peter the Whaler|W.H.G. Kingston
Her master, as Griggs remarked, "was no d—d slouching lubber, and knew a yardarm from a rattan cane."
Richard Carvel, Complete|Winston Churchill

Four of the pirates were picked up, and hung at the yardarm next morning.
By order of the company|Mary Johnston

British Dictionary definitions for yardarm

yardarm

/ (ˈjɑːdˌɑːm) /

noun

nautical the two tapering outer ends of a ship's yard

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