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Backstay   Listen
noun
Backstay  n.  
1.
(Naut.) A rope or stay extending from the masthead to the side of a ship, slanting a little aft, to assist the shrouds in supporting the mast. (Often used in the plural.)
2.
A rope or strap used to prevent excessive forward motion.





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Backstay" Quotes from Famous Books



... tropic city sweats and roars, I have sailed with Young Ulysses from the quay Till the anchor rumbled down on stranger shores. He is blooded to the open and the sky, He is taken in a snare that shall not fail, He shall hear me singing strongly, till he die, Like the shouting of a backstay in a gale. ...
— The Seven Seas • Rudyard Kipling
... ship's companies, because they could not beat us—no, not even hold a candle to us. In both fore and main-top we had eight-and-twenty as smart chaps as ever put their foot to a rattling, or slid down by an a'ter backstay. Now, the two captains of the foretop were both prime young men, active as monkeys, and bold as lions. One was named Tom Herbert, from North Shields, a dark, good-looking chap, with teeth as white as a nigger's, and a merry chap he was, always a-showing them. ...
— Jacob Faithful • Captain Frederick Marryat


Words linked to "Backstay" :   stay


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