Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun Nautical, a hawser coiled in a boat, and carried from a vessel to any distant object for the purpose of warping the vessel toward the object: so called from the necessity of guessing the distance, and consequently the length of the hawser.
- noun Any rope by which a boat is secured astern of or alongside a ship.
Etymologies
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Examples
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Where the eddy failed, as in swift and shallow places, they hauled the boats up with great labour by making a hawser fast to a tree ahead, and hauling up to it, as on a guess-warp.
On the Spanish Main Or, Some English forays on the Isthmus of Darien. John Masefield 1922
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Here the fellows made what seamen call a "guess-warp," of their rope; fastening one end to a tree, and paying out line, as the yawl was towed back again to the ship.
Afloat and Ashore A Sea Tale James Fenimore Cooper 1820
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-- "Report him to the commissioner, Mr Wiggins; and oblige me by under-running the guess-warp.
Peter Simple; and, The Three Cutters, Vol. 1-2 Frederick Marryat 1820
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