SEAFARING

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does seafaring mean? 

• SEAFARING (noun)
  The noun SEAFARING has 2 senses:

1. the work of a sailor

2. travel by water

  Familiarity information: SEAFARING used as a noun is rare.

• SEAFARING (adjective)
  The adjective SEAFARING has 1 sense:

1. used on the high seas

  Familiarity information: SEAFARING used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SEAFARING (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The work of a sailor

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

navigation; sailing; seafaring

Hypernyms ("seafaring" is a kind of...):

employment; work (the occupation for which you are paid)

Meronyms (parts of "seafaring"):

steerage; steering (the act of steering a ship)

Domain member category:

sternpost ((nautical) the principal upright timber at the stern of a vessel)

stay ((nautical) brace consisting of a heavy rope or wire cable used as a support for a mast or spar)

fireroom; stokehold; stokehole ((nautical) chamber or compartment in which the furnaces of a ship are stoked or fired)

ratlin; ratline ((nautical) a small horizontal rope between the shrouds of a sailing ship; they form a ladder for climbing aloft)

towing line; towing rope; towline; towrope ((nautical) a rope used in towing)

capsizing ((nautical) the event of a boat accidentally turning over in the water)

beam-ends ((nautical) at the ends of the transverse deck beams of a vessel)

bell; ship's bell ((nautical) each of the eight half-hour units of nautical time signaled by strokes of a ship's bell; eight bells signals 4:00, 8:00, or 12:00 o'clock, either a.m. or p.m.)

steerageway ((nautical) the minimum rate of motion needed for a vessel to be maneuvered)

stand out (steer away from shore, of ships)

starboard (turn to the right, of helms or rudders)

close-hauled (having the sails trimmed for sailing as close to the wind as possible)

fore (situated at or toward the bow of a vessel)

atrip; aweigh ((of an anchor) just clear of the bottom)

rigged (fitted or equipped with necessary rigging (sails and shrouds and stays etc))

unrigged (stripped of rigging)

fore-and-aft (parallel with the keel of a boat or ship)

close to the wind (nearly opposite to the direction from which wind is coming)

mainsheet; sheet; shroud; tack; weather sheet ((nautical) a line (rope or chain) that regulates the angle at which a sail is set in relation to the wind)

leg ((nautical) the distance traveled by a sailing vessel on a single tack)

tack; tacking ((nautical) the act of changing tack)

accommodation ladder ((nautical) a portable ladder hung over the side of a vessel to give access to small boats alongside)

becket ((nautical) a short line with an eye at one end and a knot at the other; used to secure loose items on a ship)

bilge well ((nautical) a well where seepage drains to be pumped away)

bitter end ((nautical) the inboard end of a line or cable especially the end that is wound around a bitt)

chip (a triangular wooden float attached to the end of a log line)

deadeye ((nautical) a round hardwood disk with holes and a grooved perimeter used to tighten a shroud)

escutcheon ((nautical) a plate on a ship's stern on which the name is inscribed)

jack ladder; Jacob's ladder; pilot ladder ((nautical) a hanging ladder of ropes or chains supporting wooden or metal rungs or steps)

laniard; lanyard ((nautical) a line used for extending or fastening rigging on ships)

lead line; sounding line ((nautical) plumb line for determining depth)

luff ((nautical) the forward edge of a fore-and-aft sail that is next to the mast)

overhead ((nautical) the top surface of an enclosed space on a ship)

rudder ((nautical) steering mechanism consisting of a hinged vertical plate mounted at the stern of a vessel)

sea ladder; sea steps ((nautical) ladder to be lowered over a ship's side for coming aboard)

spun yarn ((nautical) small stuff consisting of a lightweight rope made of several rope yarns loosely wound together)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "seafaring"):

cabotage (navigation in coastal waters)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Travel by water

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

seafaring; water travel

Hypernyms ("seafaring" is a kind of...):

travel; traveling; travelling (the act of going from one place to another)

Domain member category:

shipwreck (cause to experience shipwreck)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "seafaring"):

ocean trip; voyage (an act of traveling by water)

sailing (riding in a sailboat)

boating; yachting (water travel for pleasure)

• SEAFARING (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Used on the high seas

Synonyms:

oceangoing; seafaring; seagoing

Context example:

seafaring vessels

Similar:

marine (relating to or characteristic of or occurring on or in the sea)

 Context examples 

It warn't hard, you may suppose, for a seafaring man like me to work his way over to Italy.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Every day when he came back from his stroll he would ask if any seafaring men had gone by along the road.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

The product was always the same, one hundred dollars, and he decided that that was better than seafaring.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

We had reason to believe that his wife had been murdered, and that a man—presumably a seafaring man—had been murdered at the same time.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

These volumes were my study day and night, and my familiarity with them increased that regret which I had felt, as a child, on learning that my father’s dying injunction had forbidden my uncle to allow me to embark in a seafaring life.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

Doctors is all swabs, he said; and that doctor there, why, what do he know about seafaring men?

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

She lives with a relative; Christian name, unknown; surname, Peggotty; occupation, seafaring; also of this town.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

When I observed that the knot was one which is popular with sailors, that the parcel had been posted at a port, and that the male ear was pierced for an earring which is so much more common among sailors than landsmen, I was quite certain that all the actors in the tragedy were to be found among our seafaring classes.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“Jim,” he said at length, “you saw that seafaring man today?”

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

The seafaring men kept apart, when those two were seen early, walking with slow steps on the beach; and stood in knots, talking compassionately among themselves.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)