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edo is fired, usually by a small charge of gunpowder. On torpedo vessels the tubes are on deck and usually in broadside, on larger vessels usually submerged in broadside and fitted with a movable shield which is pushed out from the vessel's side to protect the torpedo until clear, but formerly sometimes in the bow. In…

especially of horses. Steeds . . . that trapped were in steel all glittering. Chaucer. To deck his hearse, and trap his tomb-black steed. Spenser. There she found her palfrey trapped In purple blazoned with armorial gold. Tennyson.

ttached to the topgallant or royal yard, used to trip the yard, and in lowering it to the deck; also, a line used in letting go the anchor. Luce.

An old game with cards, nearly the same as whist; -- called also ruff. Decker.

(Naut.) A convex deck at the bow or stern of a vessel, so made to shed the seas quickly.

efinite law of twinning. See Twin, n., 4. Twin boat, or Twin ship (Naut.), a vessel whose deck and upper works rest on two parallel hulls. -- Twin crystal. See Twin, n., 4. -- Twin flower (Bot.), a delicate evergreen plant (Linnæa borealis) of northern climates, which has pretty, fragrant, pendulous flowers borne in…

covert (Zoöl.), one of the coverts situated above the bases of the tail quills. -- Upper deck (Naut.), the topmost deck of any vessel; the spar deck. -- Upper leather, the leather for the vamps and quarters of shoes. -- Upper strake (Naut.), the strake next to the deck, usually of hard wood, and heavier than the oth…

Revelers; roysterers. [Obs.] Decker.

hields placed close together, and alternately white and blue. Fairholt. No vair or ermine decked his garment. Sir W. Scott. Counter vair (Her.), a fur resembling vair, except in the arrangement of the patches or figures.

les, as clothes, etc. Piers Plowman laid the cloth, and Simplicity brought in the voider. Decker. The cloth whereon the earl dined was taken away, and the voider, wherein the plate was usually put, was set upon the cupboard's head. Hist. of Richard Hainam.

Hence, the middle part of other bodies; especially (Naut.), that part of a vessel's deck, bulwarks, etc., which is between the quarter-deck and the forecastle; the middle part of the ship.

ering of canvas or tarpaulin for the hammocks, stowed on the nettings, between the quarterdeck and the forecastle.

all the night, And funeral games played at new returning light. Dryden. The wood nymphs, decked with daises trim, Their merry wakes and pastimes keep. Milton.

a vessel; as, the main wales, or the strakes of planking under the port sills of the gun deck; channel wales, or those along the spar deck, etc.

nwale of boat to keep the sea from breaking inboard; also, a plank on the sill of a lower deck port, for the same purpose; -- called also wasteboard. Mar. Di

An allotted portion of time, usually four hour for standing watch, or being on deck ready for duty. Cf. Dogwatch.

Heavy plank or timber extending fore and aft the whole length of a vessel's deck at the line of junction with the sides, forming a channel to the scuppers, which are cut through it. In iron vessels the waterway is variously constructed.

rforce, into my business. Shak. That in their green shops weave the smooth-haired silk To deck her sons. Milton. And for these words, thus woven into song. Byron.

nclosure in the middle of a vessel's hold, around the pumps, from the bottom to the lower deck, to preserve the pumps from damage and facilitate their inspection.

me and wetted my paper." Burke. Ye mists and exhalations, that now rise . . . Whether to deck with clouds the uncolored sky, Or wet the thirsty earth with falling showers. Milton. To wet one's whistle, to moisten one's throat; to drink a dram of liquor. [Colloq.] Let us drink the other cup to wet our whistles. Walton.…