▪ I. aboard, adv. and prep.
(əˈbɔəd, əˈbɔːd)
Also 5–7 abord(e, 6 abrode, aburd, 6–7 aboord(e, 7 abourd, and incorr. abroad.
[f. a prep.1 + board, and Fr. à bord, to which apparently the modern use of aboard, on board, is chiefly due. Board is orig. Teutonic: in OE., bord a plank, table, shield, and poetically a ship, whence on borde in ship. But this poetic form seems to have died out with OE., the ordinary ME. prose being within shippes borde, within the ship's boarding or sides. Meanwhile the Teut. bord, OHG. bort, had been adopted in Fr. as 1. board, plank, whence the boarding or sides of a vessel; hence, 2. the vessel itself, and, 3. the side or border of anything, edge, coast, shore. À bord, in or on a ship; bord à bord, board to board, side by side, hard aboard, touching; venir à bord, to come a-shore, to land; aborder to come to the side of; abord, approach, accosting. These uses and phrases were adopted in Eng. where also from the use of board in within shippes borde, etc., a-board was very soon regarded as the Eng. prep. a + board, and expanded passim into on board.]
A. adv.
1. On board, within the boards (of a ship); a. (position) in or on a ship or other floating vessel.
| 1587 Turbervile Trag. Tales (1837) 174 The men aboord that see them come Prepare them selves to fight. 1610 Shakes. Temp. i. i. 21 Good, yet remember whom thou hast aboord. 1675 Hobbes Odyssey 171 Then I my fellows bad aboard to stay And guard the ships. 1805 Southey Madoc xvii. (1853) V. 128 Now all is done. Stores, beeves and flocks and water all aboard. |
b. (motion) on to or into the ship.
| 1509 Barclay Ship of Fooles (1570) ¶ ¶ vj. There is great number that fayne would aborde..our ship can holde no more. 1600 Holland Livy xliii. lvi. 1148 h, C. Lucretius..himself went abourd unto a trireme galley. 1602 Shakes. Ham. i. iii. 56 Yet heere Laertes? Aboord, aboord for shame, The winde sits in the shoulder of your saile. 1611 Bible Acts xxi. 2 And finding a ship sailing ouer vnto Phenicea, wee went abroad [sic], and set foorth. 1725 Pope Odyssey ii. 332 The Mariners by my command Shall speed aboard. 1849 Grote Greece V. lvii. 118 (1862) The Syracusans got aboard, and rowed close along-shore. |
c. all aboard, the call to warn passengers to get aboard a vessel about to start. Also used (chiefly U.S.) in connexion with coaches and trains.
| 1838 J. C. Neal Charcoal Sk. 76 He..gave himself a gentle impulse, crying ‘All aboard!’ and slid slowly but majestically down. 1871 Barnum Struggles & Triumphs 363, I should have expected..to have seen him dressed in a pea jacket, blowing off steam, and crying out ‘all aboard that's going’. 1873 J. H. Beadle Undevel. West xv. 251 All aboard for Yosemite and the Big Trees. 1903 A. D. McFaul Ike Glidden xxxi. 297 He and his bride boarded the train, and the conductor announced, ‘All aboard’. |
| transf. 1878 I. L. Bird Rocky Mts. (1879) 148 ‘Head them [sc. cattle] off, boys!’ our leader shouted; ‘all aboard! hark away!’ and..away we all went at a hand-gallop. c 1890 McK. Wright in A. E. Woodhouse N.Z. Farm & Station Verse (1950) 33 All aboard! all aboard! is the cry They're a ripping lot of shearers in the shed. 1911 W. H. Koebel Maoriland Bush viii. 122 Then comes the..signal to commence work [sc. shearing]—the stentorian cry of ‘All Aboard’. 1928 A. E. Andrews C. C. Andrews: Recoll. 1829–1922 169 At dusk a non-commissioned officer of the guard would call out ‘All aboard’, and upstairs we promptly would go. |
d. On, or into, a train, aircraft, etc. Freq. U.S. Cf. board n. 14 c.
| 1856 M. J. Holmes L. Rivers iv. 33 She..told him that ‘the trunks..were every one on 'em left!’ ‘No, they are not..I saw them aboard myself.’ 1905 Kipling Actions & Reactions (1909) 112 Our coach will lock on when..the clerks are aboard. 1931 W. G. McAdoo Crowded Years i. 7 When the..train..rattled up to the..station..the McAdoo family..climbed aboard. 1961 Newsweek 14 Aug. 13/1 Hardly anyone of the crew of six [etc.]..paid any attention to the man and teen-age boy who had come aboard. 1976 Daily Tel. 30 June 1/4 An advance on the 83 originally presumed to be aboard. |
2. a. Alongside, on one side (of a ship or shore). Modified by hard, close. See also board n. 12 d.
| 1494 Fabyan vii. 373 The Turkes..ordeyned .iiii. barges or suche lyke vessayles, &..sodaynly brought them a bord where y⊇ Cristen host lay. 1772–84 Cook Voyages (1790) V. 1782 He was desirous of keeping the coast of America aboard. 1881 Daily Tel. Jan. 28 The proximity of the coast which the education of his skipper obliges him, if possible, to keep close aboard. |
b. fig.
| 1758 Dyche & Pardon s.v. Aboard, In sports and games this phrase signifies, that the person or side in the game that was either none, or but few, has now got to be as many as the other. |
c. to lay (a ship) aboard: to place one's own ship alongside of (it) for the purpose of fighting.
| 1593 Shakes. 2 Hen. VI, iv. i. 25 I lost mine eye in laying the prize aboord. 1655 Heywood Fortune by Land etc. iv. 416 Shall we grapple, and lay their Ship aboard? 1815 Scott Ld. of Isles v. xxiv. A bark from Lorn Laid them aboard that very morn. |
d. to fall aboard. lit. of a ship; to strike its side, fall foul of it. † fig. with or of a person or thing: to come to words, to quarrel; to attack, fall upon. The of is sometimes omitted.
| 1604 F. T. Case is Altered in Thynne Animadv. (1865) 140 He falls aboord with him for her, to have her for his seruant. 1630 Howell Letters (1650) I. 387 I have sent your Lordship this small survey of the Latin..in my next I shall fall aboard of her three daughters, viz. the Italian, the Spanish, and the French. 1697 Ray in Phil. Trans. XIX. 636 The Horse again refused the Grass, and fell aboard the Hemlock, greedily eating it up. 1816 ‘Quiz’ Grand Master i. 16 Why, are you blind?..steer large, You'll get aboard of that coal barge. |
† e. to bring aboard: to bring to land. to come to aboard (Fr. venir, arriver à bord): to arrive at the shore, to land. Obs.
| 1550 Nicolls Thucydides 53 They came to aborde in the porte of Philie. a 1600 Mar. of Wit & Wisd. Prol. (Shaks. Soc. 1846) 6 Then Fancy frames effects to bring his braine aborde, And shelue his ship in hauens mouth. |
f. to haul the tacks aboard: ‘to bring their weather clues down to the chess-tree, or literally, to set the courses.’ Smyth Sailor's Word-bk.
| 1549 Compl. of Scotlande vi. 40 (1873) Hail doune the steir burde lufe harde a burde. |
¶ Used by Spenser catachr. for ?abroad, adrift.
| 1591 Spenser M. Hubberd's Tale 324 They were in doubt, and flatly set abord. 1591 ? ― Ruins of Rome Wks. 1862 433/1 The foord..with his tumbling streames doth beare aboord The ploughmans hope. |
B. prep. [by omission of of, after the adv.]
1. On board of, within the boards or sides of; a. (position) in or on (a ship).
| 1607 Capt. Keeling in Shaks. Cent. of Praise 79 I envited Captain Hawkins to a ffishe dinner, and had Hamlet acted abord me. 1805 Southey Madoc xvii. (1853) V. 131 Is he aboard the fleet? |
b. (motion) on to or into (a ship).
| 1466 Manners & Househ. Exp. Eng. 383 My mastyr paid fore botes to set them a bord the barge. 1606 Shakes. Ant. & Cl. ii. vi. 83 Aboord my Gally, I inuite you all. 1608 ― Per. v. iii. 11 Her fortunes brought the maid aboord us. 1628 Digby Voy. to Medit. 1 (1868) Sent some of my men abord her. 1720 De Foe Capt. Singleton xii. 205 He came aboard my ship. 1878 G. Macdonald Ann. Quiet Neighb. xxiv. 429 Don't think I want to get aboard your ship. |
c. In, or into (a train). Also on or in(to) an aircraft, etc. Freq. U.S.
| 1855 Knickerbocker XLV. 561, I..put myself ‘a-board’ the six-o'clock Train. 1869 ‘Mark Twain’ Innoc. Abr. xii. 79 We..stepped aboard the train. 1972 L. B. Johnson Vantage Point iii. 53 The next day, May 9, Mrs. Johnson and I left Washington aboard a Presidential jet. 1985 Aviation Week & Space Technol. 21 Jan. 134/3 Why not preserve the fixture used to initially transport the satellite aboard the shuttle? |
† 2. Along, by the side of. To fall aboard anything = fall aboard of it: see A 2 d. Obs.
| 1506 Sir R. Guylforde Pylgr. 62, §3 (Cam. Soc.) [We] laye amost harde abrode the grete vggly rokkes. 1602 Carew Cornwall 29 b, Vail'd with nights robe, they stalke the shore aboord. 1642 Fuller Holy & Prof. State ii. xxi. 134 They came hard aboard the shore. 1677 Lond. Gaz. mccxxxvi. 4 The Channel close aboard the Main at Winterton-ness. |
¶ Used by Spenser catachr. for ?abroad, across the breadth or surface of.
| 1591 Spenser Virgil's Gnat 46 Nor yron bands abord The Pontick sea by their huge Navy cast. |
▪ II. aboard
obsolete form of abord v., to approach, board, land on.
▪ III. aboard
obsolete form of abord n., approach.