ˈhawse-piece Naut.
One of the timbers of a ship through which a hawse-hole is cut; one of the timbers which compose the bow of a vessel and whose sides look fore and aft.
| 1680 Lond. Gaz. No. 1526/4 The Adventure Pink, Dogger built..new Hawse pieces. 1769 Falconer Dict. Marine (1789), Ecubiers..also the hawse-pieces, through which those holes are cut. c 1850 Rudim. Navig. (Weale) 123 Hawse-pieces, the timbers which form the bow of the ship, whose sides stand fore and aft, or nearly so; that is, parallel to the middle line of the ship. |