Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adverb & adjective In a vertical or almost vertical position or direction.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Nautical, in a nearly vertical position or relation; pointing upward, or in an up-and-down direction.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adverb (Naut.) In a vertical line. The anchor in apeak, when the cable has been sufficiently hove in to bring the ship over it, and the ship is them said to be hove apeak.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adverb nautical, of an anchor In a vertical line, the cable having been sufficiently hove in to bring the ship over it.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Alteration of apike, probably from French à pic : à, to (from Old French a, from Latin ad-; see ad–) + pic, peak (from Old French).]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

a- +‎ peak?

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Examples

Comments

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  • "'...if I do not mistake we are short stay apeak. I say we are short stay apeak.' But before he could insist upon this term, better than any Martin could produce, and reasonably accurate, a voice called from the forecastle...'"

    --Patrick O'Brian, The Thirteen Gun Salute, 66

    March 3, 2008