dockyard
(ˈdɒkjɑːd)
[f. dock n.3 + yard.]
A more or less spacious enclosure, adjoining the sea or a river, in which ships are built and repaired, and all kinds of ships' stores are prepared or brought together; esp. in British use, applied to the Government establishments of this character for the use of the navy, in U.S. called navy-yards. Also attrib., as dockyard man, dockyard-man, a man permanently employed in a Government dockyard; also (colloq.) dockyard matey.
| 1704 Lond. Gaz. 4080/3 [He] landed at the Dock-Yard at Blackwall. 1768–74 Tucker Lt. Nat. (1852) II. 32 Peter the Great..worked with a hatchet among the carpenters in our dock-yards. 1801 Nelson Let. 31 July (1845) 433 The Vessels should be..ready for the Dock-yard men to be put on board. a 1821 Keats Robin Hood 44 All his oaks, Fall'n beneath the dock-yard strokes, Have rotted on the briny seas. 1829 W. N. Glascock Sailors & Saints III. 95 The ‘Dock-yard-Maties’—a class of men, whose hostility, and turbulent insolence to naval officers..is proverbial. 1833 Marryat P. Simple xi, The dock-yard boat with all the pay clerks and the cashier..came. 1833 Dock-yard matey [see matey n.]. 1837 Dickens Pickw. ii, Soldiers, sailors,..and dockyard men. 1840 Thirlwall Greece VII. 297 Three dockyards were speedily established in Phœnicia. 1906 Outlook 20 Nov. 495/2 Dockyardmen who are in danger of losing that otium cum dignitate which they have regarded as their perquisite. 1909 Pall Mall. Gaz. 12 Apr. 3/2 Naval men, or dockyard-men, which practically amounts to the same thing, raised Torpedo-boat No. 99 after she was sunk off Berry Head. 1918 ‘Taffrail’ Little Ship ii. 26 The dockyard-maties had slapped on the service gray paint over coal-dust and dirt alike. 1942 N. Monsarrat H.M. Corvette i. 11 Aft, the Torpedoman was arguing..with a welder, a Clydeside dockyard-matey. |