bowline1 Naut.
(ˈbəʊlaɪn)
Forms: 4 bouline, bawelyne, 5 bowelyne, 5–6 bowlyne, 6 boulene, bolyn, bollene, bollinge, 6–9 bowling, 7 bolin(e, bow-lin, boulin, bow line 7–8 boling, 8–9 bow-line, 6– bowline.
[In sense 1, in most modern Teutonic langs.: Sw. boglina, Da. bovline, Du. boeglijn, Ger. bulien; whence also F. bouline, It., Sp., Pg. bolina. In all the Teut. langs. it is connected in form with the ship's bow, which seems to be the derivation; though, as it is found in Eng. several centuries before bow, it does not appear whence we received it, nor why the pronunciation does not agree with that of bow.
The alleged ON. bógl{iacu}na occurs only in the Þulur, a rimed glossary composed prob. in Orkney, and full of foreign terms.]
I. 1. A rope passing from about the middle of the perpendicular edge on the weather side of the square sails (to which it is fastened by three or four subdivisions, called ‘bridles’) to the larboard or starboard bow, for the purpose of keeping the edge of the sail steady when sailing on a wind.
| c 1325 E.E. Allit. P. C. 104 Sprude spak to þe sprete þe spare bawe-lyne. c 1330 R. Brunne Chron. (K.O.) Bouline. c 1450 Pilgrim's Sea-Voy. 25 in Stacions Rome (1867) 38 Hale the bowelyne! now, vere the shete. 1549 Compl. Scot. vi. 40 Hail out the mane sail boulene. 1594 Greene Look. Glasse (1861) 134 We sail'd amain and let the bowling fly. 1622 Heylin Cosmogr. iv. (1682) 87 That piece of Tackle which our Mariners now called the Bolin. 1636 B. Jonson Discov., Tell them of the main-sheet, and the boulin. 1666 Lond. Gaz. No. 31/1 Without cutting his Bowlings, or discharging one Gun. 1773 Gentl. Mag. 143, I haul'd up my bowlines, and to the wind laid. 1832 Marryat N. Forster xlvii, Let go the main-top bowling. |
2. Short for bowline-knot (see 4).
| 1823 F. Cooper Pioneer xxiv. (1869) 107/2 It would have been more ship-shape to lower the bight of a rope, or running bow-line below me. |
3. on a bowline: said of a ship when close-hauled, (i.e. with the bow-line) so as to sail close to the wind.
| 1625 Purchas Pilgrimes iv. 1174 The wind was so narrow that we stood upon a bowling. 1840 R. Dana Bef. Mast x. 24 We were..obliged to..come upon a taut bowline. 1834 M. Scott Cruise Midge (1859) 480 Running in for San Andreas on a bowline. 1867 Smyth Sailor's Word-bk. s.v., The ship sails on a bowline, or stands on a taut bowline. |
4. Comb.: bowline-bend, a mode of fastening ropes together with two bow-line knots; bowline-bridle (see 1); bowline-cringle, an eye through which a bowline-bridle is fastened; bowline-knot, a simple but very secure knot, used in fastening the bowline-bridles to the cringles.
| c 1860 H. Stuart Seaman's Catech. 44 A fore course has one *bowline bridle and two cringles. |
| 1627 Capt. Smith Seaman's Gram. v. 27 The *Boling knot is..fastened by the bridles into the creengles of the sailes. 1850 Petrel I. 83 Oh, that we had a bowline knot, to let down to him! |
II. In Shipbuilding. ‘Bowlines are longitudinal curves representing the ship's fore-body cut in a vertical section.’ Smyth Sailor's Word-bk.