Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun Same as
top-mall .
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
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Examples
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With a blow from the top-maul Ahab knocked off the steel head of the lance, and then handing to the mate the long iron rod remaining, bade him hold it upright, without its touching the deck.
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Receiving the top-maul from Starbuck, he advanced towards the main-mast with the hammer uplifted in one hand, exhibiting the gold with the other, and with a high raised voice exclaiming:
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It hangs from the ship's side at the end of a heavy, projecting timber called the cat-head, in the bight of a short, thick chain whose end link is suddenly released by a blow from a top-maul or the pull of a lever when the order is given.
The Mirror of the Sea Joseph Conrad 1890
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With a blow from the top-maul Ahab knocked off the steel head of the lance, and then handing to the mate the long iron rod remaining, bade him hold it upright, without its touching the deck.
Moby Dick: or, the White Whale Herman Melville 1855
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Mr. Starbuck -- a lance without the pole; a top-maul, and the smallest of the sail-maker's needles.
Moby Dick: or, the White Whale Herman Melville 1855
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With a blow from the top-maul Ahab knocked off the steel head of the lance, and then handing to the mate the long iron rod remaining, bade him hold it upright, without its touching the deck.
Moby Dick, or, the whale Herman Melville 1855
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Mr. Starbuck -- a lance without a pole; a top-maul, and the smallest of the sail-maker's needles.
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It's a white whale, 'I say, resumed Ahab, as he threw down the top-maul; a white whale.
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With a blow from the top-maul Ahab knocked off the steel head of the lance, and then handing to the mate the long iron rod remaining, bade him hold it upright, without its touching the deck.
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Receiving the top-maul from Starbuck, he advanced towards the main-mast with the hammer uplifted in one hand, exhibiting the gold with the other, and with a high raised voice exclaiming: "Whosoever of ye raises me a white-headed whale with a wrinkled brow and a crooked jaw; whosoever of ye raises me that white-headed whale, with three holes punctured in his starboard fluke -- look ye, whosoever of ye raises me that same white whale, he shall have this gold ounce, my boys!"
Moby Dick: or, the White Whale Herman Melville 1855
chained_bear commented on the word top-maul
"'...they flung down the top-maul, which very nearly did him in, together with anything else they could lay their hands on. And they kept roaring out that they would not leave the ship.'
"'I did hear the bosun call them goddam sods, but it never occurred to me that he could mean Sarah and Emily.'"
--Patrick O'Brian, The Nutmeg of Consolation, 318
March 9, 2008