Dictionary

apeak en · ADV

Pronunciation

• /əˈpiːk/

Etymology

From French à pic (“at its summit; vertically”), compare with Italian a picco.

Meanings

1. (not-comparable, of an anchor) In a vertical line, the cable having been sufficiently hove in to bring the ship over it.
   • I found the New Shoreham with her anchor apeak and, within a quarter of an hour after I reached her, running seven knots an hour, right before the wind. 1808–10, William Hickey, Memoirs of a Georgian Rake, Folio Society 1995, p. 163
   • Thus the good we should cherish, the bad never seek, / For death will too soon bring each anchor apeak. a 1796, Charles Dibdin, "Nautical Philosophy"

Forms