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

  • And that hapless son of Ham, who happened to be just crossing the main-deck, heard a marlingspike, which by ill luck was lying at hand, flying past his ears.

    Westward Ho! 2007

  • His face was an exceedingly round but sober one; he was dressed in a faded blue woolen frock or shirt, and patched trowsers; and had thus far been dividing his attention between a marlingspike he held in one hand, and a pill-box held in the other, occasionally casting a critical glance at the ivory limbs of the two crippled captains.

    Moby Dick; or the Whale 2002

  • He drew out a small marlingspike which he carried in a sheath at his hip, and, bending over the flagstone, felt for the notch; found it, inserted the point, and began to prise, glancing, as he worked, over his shoulder at the windows of the house.

    The Mayor of Troy Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch 1903

  • The place before is full of the sound of the hammer tapping the silver on the marlingspike.

    Life of John Coleridge Patteson Yonge, Charlotte M 1873

  • His face was an exceedingly round but sober one; he was dressed in a faded blue woollen frock or shirt, and patched trowsers; and had thus far been dividing his attention between a marlingspike he held in one hand, and a pill-box held in the other, occasionally casting a critical glance at the ivory limbs of the two crippled captains.

    Moby Dick: or, the White Whale Herman Melville 1855

  • But I had no hand in shipping that ivory arm there; that thing is against all rule "-- pointing at it with the marlingspike --" that is the captain's work, not mine; he ordered the carpenter to make it; he had that club-hammer there put to the end, to knock some one's brains out with, I suppose, as he tried mine once.

    Moby Dick: or, the White Whale Herman Melville 1855

  • Groves of rigging were about the chains; and there, peering from behind a great stay, like an Indian from behind a hemlock, a Spanish sailor, a marlingspike in his hand, was seen, who made what seemed an imperfect gesture towards the balcony, but immediately as if alarmed by some advancing step along the deck within, vanished into the recesses of the hempen forest, like a poacher.

    The Piazza Tales Herman Melville 1855

  • His face was an exceedingly round but sober one; he was dressed in a faded blue woollen frock or shirt, and patched trowsers; and had thus far been dividing his attention between a marlingspike he held in one hand, and a pill-box held in the other, occasionally casting a critical glance at the ivory limbs of the two crippled captains.

    Moby Dick, or, the whale Herman Melville 1855

  • But I had no hand in shipping that ivory arm there; that thing is against all rule "-- pointing at it with the marlingspike --" that is the captain's work, not mine; he ordered the carpenter to make it; he had that club-hammer there put to the end, to knock some one's brains out with, I suppose, as he tried mine once.

    Moby Dick, or, the whale Herman Melville 1855

  • But I had no hand in shipping that ivory arm there; that thing is against all rule '-- pointing at it with the marlingspike --' that is the captain's work, not mine; he ordered the carpenter to make it; he had that club-hammer there put to the end, to knock some one's brains out with, I suppose, as he tried mine once.

    Moby-Dick, or, The Whale 1851

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