Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun One who goes before; a forerunner.
- noun In whaling, a piece of rope, of the same kind as the tow-line, made fast to the shank of a toggle-iron or harpoon, with an eye-splice in one end: so called by English and Scotch whalemen, more frequently by Americans the strap or iron-strap.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Naut.) A short rope grafted on a harpoon, to which a longer line may be attached.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun One who or that which goes before; a
forerunner ; aharbinger ; apredecessor . - noun nautical A short
rope grafted on aharpoon , to which a longerline may beattached .
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
From Middle English foreganger, from Old English *foregangere, from foregangan ("to go before, precede, go in front of, project, excel"), equivalent to fore- + ganger. Cognate with Scots foregangare ("a foregoer"), Dutch voorganger ("a predecessor, progenitor"), German Vorgänger ("a predecessor, precursor"), Swedish föregångare ("a forerunner, precursor, progenitor").
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Examples
-
A piece of small, but stout line, called, I think, the foreganger, is spliced securely to the shank of the harpoon.
The Lieutenant and Commander Hall, Basil, 1788-1844 1862
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The rope, before being made fast to the foreganger, is rove through a block attached to some part of the bowsprit, or to the foremost swifter of the fore-rigging; a gang of hands are always ready to take hold of the end, and run the fish right out of the water when pierced by the iron.
The Lieutenant and Commander Hall, Basil, 1788-1844 1862
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