Dictionary

marlinspike en · NOUN

Etymology

From marline + spike.

Meanings

1. A tool, consisting of a pointed metal spike, used to manipulate the strands of rope or cable when knotting and splicing.
   • There was / that interval of moonless calm filled only / with the water's and the rigging's usual sounds, / then sudden movement, blows and snarling cries / and they had fallen on us with machete / and marlinspike. 1962, Robert Hayden, “Middle Passage”, in David Lehman, editor, The Oxford Book of American Poetry, Oxford University Press, published 2006, page 585:
   • […] the afterguard, of whom they have but a sorry opinion, chiefly landsmen, never going aloft except to reef or furl the mainsail and in no wise competent to handle a marlinspike or turn in a dead-eye, say. 1924, Herman Melville, chapter 12, in Billy Budd, London: Constable & Co.:

Forms

Translations (12)

gl tarabelo (Translations) · fi malspiikki (Translations) · gl pígaro (Translations) · gl carabilla (Translations) · he דקר חבלים (Translations) · es pasador (Translations) · de Marlspieker (Translations) · he דקר (Translations) · el καβίλια (Translations) · gl chavella (Translations) · is melspíra (Translations) · ru сва́йка (Translations)