Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun An ancient galley equipped with two tiers of oars on each side.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun An ancient galley having two banks or tiers of oars.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun An ancient galley or vessel with two banks or tiers of oars.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun history, nautical an
ancient galley having twobanks ofoars , one above the other.
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
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Examples
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To increase the driving force and the speed, they added a second and then a third bank of oars, thus producing the "bireme" and the "trireme."
A History of Sea Power William Oliver Stevens 1916
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Director Wolfgang Petersen recreates a long-ago world of bireme warships, clashing armies, the massive fortress city and the towering Trojan Horse.
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Hence find bireme, hemiolia, merchantman, myoparo, quinquereme, sixteener and trireme in the glossary of Fortune's Favorites.
Fortune's Favorites McCullough, Colleen, 1937- 1993
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So that even now, when the hortator of the bireme struck the skin hide of the drum to set the measure for the oarsmen, Casca could feel a twinge seem to ripple over his back, for a slave master's lash, on the galley he had slaved on, had made its mark there.
The Eternal Mercenary Sadler, Barry 1980
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There they were loaded on a bireme, a twin-banked coastal ship that would take them to the port of Cenchrea.
The Eternal Mercenary Sadler, Barry 1980
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At nights, when the sea was quiet and the bireme rocked to and fro with the swells, he would often awake with a jerk, his body soaked in cold sweat as memories rushed on him in his sleep.
The Eternal Mercenary Sadler, Barry 1980
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The galley they were sailing on was a military bireme, twin-oared, a lot different from the trading ship that had brought him to the mines.
The Eternal Mercenary Sadler, Barry 1980
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Casca was on a bireme out of Antium when Yesuvius blew and smothered Herculaneum and Pompeii beneath tons of ash and lava.
The Eternal Mercenary Sadler, Barry 1980
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From Crete, the bireme made a straight approach to Rhodes for a two-day stop during which Casca and the others were allowed to exercise themselves on deck (the crew used them to help load a cargo of skins and other items into the hold next to the slave section).
The Eternal Mercenary Sadler, Barry 1980
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The ashes reached the bireme far out at sea and turned the ship into a filthy mess of wet ash and powdered pumice that invaded everything from the pores of their skins to the food they ate.
The Eternal Mercenary Sadler, Barry 1980
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