yardarm

[ yahrd-ahrm ]

/ ˈyɑrdˌɑrm /

Save This Word!

noun Nautical.

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

QUIZ

QUIZ YOURSELF ON AFFECT VS. EFFECT!

In effect, this quiz will prove whether or not you have the skills to know the difference between “affect” and “effect.”

Question 1 of 7

The rainy weather could not ________ my elated spirits on my graduation day.

affect

effect

TAKE THE QUIZ TO FIND OUT

Meet Grammar Coach

Write or paste your essay, email, or story into Grammar Coach and get grammar help

Improve Your Writing

Meet Grammar CoachImprove Your Writing

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

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