Definitions

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

  • noun Alternative spelling of marlinespike.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a pointed iron hand tool that is used to separate strands of a rope or cable (as in splicing)

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Another time he dropped a steel marlinspike from the mizzen crosstree.

    Chapter 16 2010

  • Another time he dropped a steel marlinspike from the mizzen crosstree.

    Chapter 16 1904

  • "This is the item I'm most excited about," he said, gesturing to a long bar known as a marlinspike, a nautical tool for splicing rope and untying knots.

    Top Stories - Google News 2008

  • "This is the item I'm most excited about," he said, gesturing to a long bar known as a marlinspike, a nautical tool for splicing rope and untying knots.

    Top Stories - Google News 2008

  • He will only carry his boarding pike and cutlass when they have been issued to the crew, but always has a utility knife and marlinspike handy.

    Meet the Reavers – Melako “Ox” Chaalu, Garundi Barbarian « Geek Related 2009

  • An inquisitive lout of a seal did all it could to bite through the thread, but whether this was too strong or its teeth too poor, we managed after a lot of trouble to coax the marlinspike up again, and the interfering rascal, who had to come up to the surface now and then to take breath, got the spike of a ski-pole in his thick hide.

    The South Pole~ The Eastern Sledge Journey 2009

  • The marlinspike sank and sank until it had drawn with it 130 fathoms of thread.

    The South Pole~ The Eastern Sledge Journey 2009

  • For example, my 1951 edition Admiralty Seamanship Manual defines the bit of marlinspike-work allowing a yard or a line to be passed through the middle of the cordage as a “cut splice”.

    Cheeseburger Gothic » Poor Harry 2009

  • First the marlinspike was sent down with the thread as a line.

    The South Pole~ The Eastern Sledge Journey 2009

  • This time we were better supplied with sounding tackle two reels of thread, a marlinspike, and our geological hammer.

    The South Pole~ The Eastern Sledge Journey 2009

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