amidships, adv.
(əˈmɪdʃɪps)
[prop. a phrase, = ‘in the ship's middle, in centre of the ship,’ retaining the genitive which originally followed amid, as in amid-heaps. The phr. must therefore be old though our instances begin late.]
a. In the middle of a ship; rarely, to or towards the middle of the ship.
| 1692 Smith Seaman's Gram. i. xvi. 76 He who cuns the Ship uses these terms to him at Helm, Starboard, Larboard, Port, Helm a Midships. 1755 Smollett Don Quix. (1803) II. 185 The other..took us amidships, and laid the side of the bark entirely open. 1833 Marryat Pet. Simple, The two sheep-pens amidships are full of pigs. 1837 ― Perc. Keene xl. (1863) 282 The vessel..had parted amidships. 1859 M. Scott Tom Cringle xv. 372, I moved round more amidships. 1873 Brit. Q. Rev. Jan., The whole of the protected guns are carried amidships. |
b. transf. (colloq.).
| 1937 Partridge Dict. Slang 12/1 Amidships, on the solar plexus; in or on the belly. 1961 Times 11 July 4/7 Buss hit him painfully amidships and he had to leave the field. 1963 Bird & Hutton-Scott Veteran Motor Car 15 A slow-running horizontal engine amidships. |