oakum
(ˈəʊkəm)
Forms: 1 acumba, æcumbe, 5 okom(e, okcome, okem, 6 okym, ocom, occam, 6–7 ocam, 6–8 okam, ockam, 7 ocum, oc(c)ome, ocham, oacombe, okeham, okame, 7–8 oakam, -ham, ockham, okum, 7– oakum.
[OE. ácumbe fem. or neut., ácumba, ácuma masc., var. of ǽcumbe, ǽcuma, pl. -an, lit. off-combings = OHG. âchambi, MHG. ákambe, ákamp neut., f. ǽ-, â- privative, ‘away’, ‘off’, + camb- stem of cęmban, kemb, to comb.]
† 1. The coarse part of the flax separated in hackling; hards, tow; also, clippings, trimmings, shreds. Obs.
| c 1000 Sax. Leechd. II. 22 Afyl ða wunde, & mid acumban besweðe. Ibid. 80 Sealf eft, medowyrt acumban. c 1000 ælfric Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 152/15 Stuppa, æcumbe. a 1100 Aldhelm Gloss. 1. 3293 (Napier 88/1) Putamina, acumba. Ibid. 2. 187 Acuman. |
2. Loose fibre, obtained by untwisting and picking old rope; used in caulking ships' seams, in stopping up leaks, and sometimes in dressing wounds. The picking of it as an employment of convicts and inmates of workhouses, which was formerly common, has now fallen into disuse.
| 1481–90 Howard Househ. Bks. (Roxb.) 24 Item, for pich and okom viij. d. 1485 in Cely Papers (1900) 182 Item a stone okem, vd. 1486 Naval Acc. Hen. VII (1896) 18 Pitche tarre okum and other stuffe. 1495 Ibid. 164 Okome bought & spent abought Calkyng. 1577 J. Northbrooke Dicing (1843) 81 Many of them..may..tose okam. 1599 Hakluyt Voy. II. ii. 104 Calked with the huskes of Cocos shels beaten, whereof they make Occam. 1617 J. Lane Cont. Sqr.'s T. 242 With tallowe, boild pitch, okeham, tarr, bedipps. 1622 R. Hawkins Voy. S. Sea 155 Peeces of a junke or rope, chopped very small, and..tozed all as oacombe. 1630 J. Taylor (Water P.) Praise Hempseed Wks. iii. 66/2 Ships, Barks, Hoyes, Drumlers, Craires, Boats, all would sink But for the Ocum caulked in every chink. 1666 Dryden Ann. Mirab. cxlvi, Some drive old Okum through each seam and rift. 1666 Pepys Diary 4 June, Who should it be but Mr. Daniel, all muffled up,..and his right eye stopped with oakum? 1706 Phillips, Oakam, Ockam, or Okum, (a Sea-Term). 1733 P. Lindsay Interest Scot. 23 Easy Labour at first, such as picking of Wool or Cotton, teasing of Ockam. 1769 Falconer Dict. Marine (1789) Aaa iij b, Black oakum..is made of tarred ropes. 1840 R. H. Dana Bef. Mast xxvi. 87 Picking oakum, until we got enough to caulk the ship all over. 1876 Clin. Soc. Trans. IX. 59 An oakum poultice is kept applied. |
3. attrib. and Comb., as oakum-ball, oakum-boy, oakum-chisel; oakum-headed, oakum-whiskered adjs.
| 1701 Enq. Inconven. Pub. Elections 17 A sufficient Number of Setts of Oakham Balls. 1805 Naval Chron. XIII. 243 From the first Officer to the lowest Oakum-boy [at Dockyard]. 1865 Dickens Mut. Fr. ii. xiii, The oakum-headed, oakum-whiskered man. |