ˈyard-arm, n. Naut.
Also 6 yardes-, 7 yards-, 7–8 yard's-.
[f. yard n.2 5 + arm n.1 8 a.]
a. Either of the two ends of a yard; esp. that part of either end which is outside the sheave-hole. Often used for the yard as a whole.
| 1553, etc. [see b]. 1665 Pepys Diary 18 Sept., It being a place just wide enough, and not so much hardly, for ships to go through to it, the yard-armes sticking in the very rocks. 1756 Gentl. Mag. Nov. 506/2 So near as to be almost on board each other, our yard-arms very near touching hers. 1833 M. Scott Tom Cringle vi, Aloft there! lie out, you Perkins, and reeve a whip on the starboard yard-arm. 1855 Macaulay Hist. Eng. xv. III. 609 The vast wood of masts and yardarms below London Bridge. |
b. in reference to hanging or ducking a person from the extremity of a yard as a punishment.
| 1553 in Hakluyt Voy. (1589) 266 For pickerie ducked at the yardes arme, and so discharged. 1585 T. Washington tr. Nicholay's Voy. ii. x. 44 b, [He had] three stroppados at the yardes arme of the gally. 1627 J. Taylor (Water P.) Armado B 7, They are duck'd from the yeard arme of State, into the deep sea of disgrace. 1746 Brit. Mag. 48, I..shall go near to complement you with the Ceremony of the Yard-arm. 1755 Smollett Quix. iv. xi. (1803) IV. 235 He ordered the two Turks..to be hanged at the yard's arm. 1870 Thornbury Tour rd. Eng. I. ix. 188 It was the time of hard fighting,..and frequent stringing up at the yard-arm. 1887 Times 11 Aug. 13/2 The improbability of seeing them..in their proper place at the yard-arm of one of Her Majesty's ships. |
c. advb. phr. yard-arm and (or to) yard-arm, said of two ships so near to one another that their yard-arms touch or cross. Also
yard-arm to or with (another ship).
| 1666 Lond. Gaz. No. 60/1 The Saphire and Success..bore in among them, laying yard-arm to yard-arm with the Admiral and Vice-Admiral. 1697 Ibid. 3288/2 They lay Yards-Arm and Yards-Arm for 5 Glasses. 1759 Ann. Reg., Chron. 62/1 The second lieutenant then came upon deck, and fought the ship bravely, yard-arm and yard-arm. 1781 Log of Albemarle 30 Oct. in Nicolas Disp. Nelson (1846) VII. p. iii, Finding the Albemarle yard-arm with them they submitted. 1867 H. Kingsley Silcote of S. xlvii, The old English (and French) method of laying himself yardarm to the enemy, and boarding him suddenly. 1887 Besant The World went etc. vi, An engagement, yard-arm to yard-arm, with a Frenchman. |
| transf. 1862 Thornbury Turner I. xvi. 299 To leave it [sc. a picture by Turner] to the nation on condition of its being hung yard-arm and yard-arm with Claude. |
d. attrib.| c 1860 H. Stuart Seaman's Catech. 18 The goose neck or yard arm iron. 1867 Smyth Sailor's Word-bk., Yard-arm cleats, wooden wedges fixed on the yards at those points where they support the lifts and braces. Ibid., Yard-arm piece, an octagonal piece of timber supplied to replace a yard-arm if shot away. 1883 Man. Seamanship for Boys 68 The yard-arm men get hold of the head-earrings. |
e. Phr.
when the sun is over the yard-arm and
varr., the time of day when it is permissible to begin drinking.
Cf. sun n. 1 e (i).
| 1899 Kipling From Sea to Sea I. xxiv. 454 The American does not drink at meals as a sensible man should... Also he has no decent notions about the sun being over the yard-arm or below the horizon. 1945 J. C. Colcord Sea Lang. comes Ashore 211 An officers' quip..is ‘When the sun is over the yardarm..it's time to take a drink’. 1964 Amer. N. & Q. III. 23/2 Frequent reference is made to the undesirability of drinking before ‘the sun has crossed the yardarm’. 1968 ‘J. le Carré’ Small Town in Germany ii. 20 Just one hour till the sun was over the yardarm... He'd have a beer first. 1979 A. Morice Murder in Outline iii. 26, I had promised to take a jugful of dry martini with him and Vera..as soon as the sun went over the yardarm. |
Hence
ˈyard-arm v. nonce-wd., (
a)
yard-arm and yard-arm (
intr.), to be yard-arm and yard-arm; also
to yard-arm it:
transf. of persons, to fight at close quarters; (
b)
trans. to hang (a person) from the yard-arm.
| 1829 P. Egan Boxiana 2nd Ser. II. 358 ‘Long bowls,’ said Curtis to Savage, ‘will not answer: you must yard-arm it with your adversary.’ 1840 Thackeray George Cruikshank Wks. 1900 XIII. 312 They are yard-arm and yard-arming, athwart-hawsing, marlinspiking,..as honest seamen invariably do, in novels. 1902 Munsey's Mag. (U.S.) XXVI. 499/2, I wish to God you'd been yard armed ten years back! |