Search the Dictionary

The casing or covering of a ship's bottom and sides; the materials for such covering; as, copper sheathing.

To decline or deviate from the line of the proper course; to turn aside; to swerve; as, a ship sheers from her course; a horse sheers at a bicycle. To sheer off, to turn or move aside to a distance; to move away. -- To sheer up, to approach obliquely.

k in the sea, or a rock, or ledge of rocks, rendering the water shallow, and dangerous to ships. On the tawny sands and shelves. Milton. On the secret shelves with fury cast. Dryden.

A stable; a shippen. [Obs.] The shepne brenning with the blacke smoke. Chaucer.

To slip to one side of a ship, so as to destroy the equilibrum; -- said of ballast or cargo; as, the cargo shifted.

An assistant to the ship's cook in washing, steeping, and shifting the salt provisions.

To cause to become more shallow; to come to a more shallow part of; as, a ship shoals her water by advancing into that which is less deep. Marryat.

A band of iron or steel, or a ship of wood, fastened to the bottom of the runner of a sleigh, or any vehicle which slides on the snow.

wooden frame to contain shot, secured to the coamings and ledges round the hatchways of a ship. -- Shot gauge, an instrument for measuring the diameter of round shot. Totten. -- shot hole, a hole made by a shot or bullet discharged. -- Shot locker (Naut.), a strongly framed compartment in the hold of a vessel, for c…

A game played on board ship in which the aim is to shove or drive with a cue wooden disks into divisions chalked on the deck; -- called also shuffleboard.

the top. -- Shroud plate. (a) (Naut.) An iron plate extending from the dead- eyes to the ship's side. Ham. Nav. Encyc. (b) (Mach.) A shroud. See def. 7, above.

ck feathers in his wings. Fuller. Sick bay (Naut.), an apartment in a vessel, used as the ship's hospital. -- Sick bed, the bed upon which a person lies sick. -- Sick berth, an apartment for the sick in a ship of war. -- Sick headache (Med.), a variety of headache attended with disorder of the stomach and nausea. -…

To communicate with by means of a signal; as, a ship signalizes its consort.

To cause to sink; to put under water; to immerse or submerge in a fluid; as, to sink a ship. [The Athenians] fell upon the wings and sank a single ship. Jowett (Thucyd.).

of India; also, the dark brown compact and durable timber obtained from it. It is used in shipbuilding and for gun carriages, railway ties, etc.

s or volume; bulk; bigness; magnitude; as, the size of a tree or of a mast; the size of a ship or of a rock.

A ship boy. [Obs.] Congreve.

A window placed in the roof of a building, in the ceiling of a room, or in the deck of a ship, for the admission of light from above.

west, at midnight was becalmed. Milton. Slack in stays (Naut.), slow in going about, as a ship. -- Slack water, the time when the tide runs slowly, or the water is at rest; or the interval between the flux and reflux of the tide. -- Slack-water navigation, navigation in a stream the depth of which has been increased,…

y. Barth. (b) A search after fugitive slaves, often conducted with bloodhounds. -- Slave ship, a vessel employed in the slave trade or used for transporting slaves; a slaver. -- Slave trade, the busines of dealing in slaves, especially of buying them for transportation from their homes to be sold elsewhere. -- Slave…