handspike
English
Seamen pushing the handspikes
Alternative forms
- hand-spike
Etymology
hand + spike
Noun
handspike (plural handspikes)
- A bar or lever, generally of wood, used in a windlass or capstan, for heaving anchor, and, in modified forms, for various purposes.
- 1838 (date written), L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XXIII, in Lady Anne Granard; or, Keeping up Appearances. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], published 1842, OCLC 1000392275, page 292:
- I would not take a rood of land from Frederic to be appointed to a man-of-war to-morrow morning, for I looked on it as his (God grant it may be long ere he touch it!) ever since I was the height of a handspike.
- 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “chapter 22”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, OCLC 57395299:
- “Man the capstan! Blood and thunder!—jump!”—was the next command, and the crew sprang for the handspikes.
- 1881–1882, Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island, London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 14 November 1883, OCLC 702939134:
- Then he rapped on the door with a bit of stick like a handspike that he carried...
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Translations
a bar or lever used in a windlass
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