Wordie: Earing: Comments

Comment by chained_bear, 2 months ago

Sun, 12 Oct 2008 22:04:40 +0000

"Earings, in a ship, are certain small ropes, employed to fasten the upper corners of a sail to its respective yard; for which purpose one end of the earing is spliced to the cringle, fixed in that part of the sail, and the other end is passed six or seven times round the yardarm and through the cringle, thereby fastening the latter to the former.... Every reef on a yard has its respective earings, which are passed in the same manner...."
—Falconer's New Universal Dictionary of the Marine (1816), 129

See also reef-earing.

Comment by yarb, 4 months ago

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 23:40:44 +0000

Citation on bunt.

Comment by chained_bear, 10 months ago

Wed, 05 Mar 2008 02:17:03 +0000

"'You and I and the Doctor must scrub ourselves from clew to earing and put on our birthday suits.'"
—Patrick O'Brian, The Thirteen Gun Salute, 257

"One of a number of small ropes that fasten the upper corner of a sail to the yard." —A Sea of Words, 184