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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



... murmurs, and calls to "light up the sail to windward"; and presently from the fore-topsail-yard comes the cry, ringing and clear,—"Haul away to leeward!"—repeated next moment from the main and echoed from the mizzen. Sheltered by the weather-bulwarks, and with one arm round a mizzen-backstay, there is a capital place to watch all this and feel the glorious thrill of the sea,—to look down the sloping deck into the black billows, with here and there a white patch of foam, and while the organ-harp overhead is sounding its magnificent symphony. It is but wood and ...
— The Atlantic Monthly , Volume 2, No. 14, December 1858 • Various
... see, must be the topmast backstay; and this the forestay; and that the topmast stay. Is it not so?" ...
— Ernest Bracebridge - School Days • William H. G. Kingston


Words linked to "Backstay" :   stay


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