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Bowline   /bˈoʊlaɪn/   Listen
noun
Bowline  n.  (Naut.) A rope fastened near the middle of the leech or perpendicular edge of the square sails, by subordinate ropes, called bridles, and used to keep the weather edge of the sail tight forward, when the ship is closehauled.
Bowline bridles, the ropes by which the bowline is fastened to the leech of the sail.
On a bowline, close-hauled or sailing close to the wind; said of a ship.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Bowline" Quotes from Famous Books



... lesson," announced Grace, who, having gotten herself ready for breakfast, took up the book showing how various sailor knots should be made. With a piece of twine she tied "figure-eights," now and then slipping into the "grannie" class; she made half-hitches, clove hitches, a running bowline, and various other combinations, until Amy declared that it made her head ache ...
— The Outdoor Girls at Rainbow Lake • Laura Lee Hope

... name of oure lorde, Hy{m} a[gh]t-su{m} i{n} at ark as ael god lyked, er alle lede[gh] i{n} lome lenged druye, 412 [Sidenote: The ark is lifted as high as the clouds, and is driven about, without mast, bowline, cables, anchors, or sail to guide its course.] e arc houen wat[gh] on hy[gh]e w{i}t{h} hurlande gote[gh], Kest to kythe[gh] vncoue e clowde[gh] ful nere. Hit walt{er}ed on e wylde flod, went as hit lyste, Drof vpon e depe dam, i{n} dau{n}g{er} hit semed, ...
— Early English Alliterative Poems - in the West-Midland Dialect of the Fourteenth Century • Various

... out, "Haul away! haul away!" upon which the men stationed at the line run away with it, and the struggling wretch is raised high into the air. Two or three of the smartest hands have in the mean time prepared what is called a running bowline knot, or noose, the nature of which may be readily described by saying that although it slips up, or renders, very easily, it is perfectly secure, without being subject to jamming. This running bowline, ...
— The Lieutenant and Commander - Being Autobigraphical Sketches of His Own Career, from - Fragments of Voyages and Travels • Basil Hall

... Bay of Biscay, and the ship proving to be a regular flyer, everybody, from the skipper downwards, was in the very best of spirits. Then came a change, the wind backing out from south-west with squally weather which placed us at once upon a taut bowline; and simultaneously with this change of weather a most disagreeable discovery was made, namely, that the Daphne was an ...
— The Congo Rovers - A Story of the Slave Squadron • Harry Collingwood

... the wind scant, and her commander thought it necessary to make a stretch over to the southern shore, before he attempted to lay his course. When he was ready to tack, an operation of some time with a vessel of her great length, the Swash was barely visible in the obscurity, gliding off upon a slack bowline, at a rate which nothing but the damp night air, the ballast-trim of the vessel, united to her excellent sailing qualities, could have produced ...
— Jack Tier or The Florida Reef • James Fenimore Cooper


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