Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun One of the curved timbers that forms a rib in the frame of a ship.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun One of the timbers of the frame of a ship above the floor-timbers and below the top-timbers.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Naut.) One of the crooked timbers which are scarfed together to form the lower part of the compound rib of a vessel; one of the crooked transverse timbers passing across and over the keel.
  • noun (Naut.) plates of iron to which the dead-eyes of the topmast rigging are secured.
  • noun short iron shrouds leading from the upper part of the lower mast or of the main shrouds to the edge of the top, or through it, and connecting the topmast rigging with the lower mast.

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

  • noun nautical Any of the curved timbers that form the ribs of a ship.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English fottek, perhaps alteration of fothok : fot, foot; see foot + hok, hook; see hook.]

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word futtock.

Examples

  • These, like the channels for the lower rigging, are mere projections or out-riggers; the true point of support for the topmast rigging is the lower shrouds, the connection being made by what are called futtock shrouds and catharpins.

    The Lieutenant and Commander Hall, Basil, 1788-1844 1862

  • One is by going along some ropes, called the futtock shrouds, when one hangs very much as a fly does crawling along the ceiling.

    My First Cruise and Other stories William Henry Giles Kingston 1847

  • To take the pull off the tops, the shrouds are continued round to the mast as "futtock" shrouds, on the same principle as the foretopmast-stay finds its continuation in the bobstay.

    Golden Days for Boys and Girls, Vol. XIII, Nov. 28, 1891 Various

  • He ignored them and clambered over the side of the ship, descending by the futtock shrouds, hurling curses while the cat continued to beleaguer his head and shoulders.

    City of Glory Beverly Swerling 2007

  • He reached the futtock rigging, and stopped to expectorate.

    The Ghost Pirates 2007

  • Yet, excepting the watch, he kept every man so busy as might be, some bringing weed to keep up a fire which he had lit near the boat; one to help him turn and hold the batten upon which he laboured; and two he sent across to the wreck of the mast, to detach one of the futtock shrouds, which (as is most rare) were made of iron rods.

    The Boats of the 'Glen Carrig' 2007

  • The light from my lantern seemed no more than a sickly yellow glow against the gloom, and higher, some forty or fifty feet, and a few ratlines below the futtock rigging on the starboard side, there was another glow of yellowness in the night.

    The Ghost Pirates 2007

  • He ignored them and clambered over the side of the ship, descending by the futtock shrouds, hurling curses while the cat continued to beleaguer his head and shoulders.

    City of Glory Beverly Swerling 2007

  • Higher, I saw the Second Mate in the futtock rigging, holding his light up over the edge of the top.

    The Ghost Pirates 2007

  • Then I was in the futtock rigging, and a moment afterwards, standing in the top, beside the Old Man.

    The Ghost Pirates 2007

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • He fell from the starboard futtock shrouds, and, not knowing how to swim, and being heavily dressed, with all those things round his neck, he probably sank immediately.

    - Richard Henry Dana Jr., Two Years Before the Mast, ch. 6

    September 6, 2008

  • (another usage on futtock-shroud, and grumlin-futtocks... and unshroud thy futtock!)

    September 6, 2008