Dictionary

arm-chest en · NOUN

Meanings

1. (historical) A portable chest for storing weapons or tools on a ship.
   • […] he stood on his own particular perch behind the mail, beating his feet, and keeping an eye and a hand on the arm-chest before him, where a loaded blunderbuss lay at the top of six or eight loaded horse-pistols, deposited on a substratum of cutlass. 1859, Charles Dickens, chapter 2, in A Tale of Two Cities, London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC, book I (Recalled to Life), page 4:
   • […] as soon as he had taken charge of the deck, he saw Mr. Hayward, the mate of his watch, lie down on the arm-chest to take a nap; 1831, John Barrow, chapter 3, in The Eventful History of the Mutiny and Piratical Seizure of H.M.S. Bounty,, London: John Murray, page 87:
   • […] there being no line-and-sinker at hand, I sent Jarl to hunt them up in the arm-chest on the quarter-deck, where doubtless they must be kept. 1849, Herman Melville, chapter 20, in Mardi, volume 1, New York: Harper, page 79:
   • This Disappointment chagreen’d the Ship’s Company, who were very intent upon their Market; which was reported to be an Arm-Chest full of Gold, and kept with three Keys; 1724, Daniel Defoe, chapter 11, in A General History of the Pyrates, London: T. Warner, page 265:

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