Crossword clues for bight
bight
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Bight \Bight\ (b[imac]t), n. [OE. bi[yogh]t a bending; cf. Sw. & Dan. bugt bend, bay; fr. AS. byht, fr. b[=u]gan. [root]88. Cf. Bout, Bought a bend, and see Bow, v.]
A corner, bend, or angle; a hollow; as, the bight of a horse's knee; the bight of an elbow.
(Geog.) A bend in a coast forming an open bay; as, the Bight of Benin.
(Naut.) The double part of a rope when folded, in distinction from the ends; that is, a round, bend, or coil not including the ends; a loop.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
Old English byht "bend, angle, corner" (related to bow), from Proto-Germanic *buhtiz (cognates: Middle Low German bucht, German Bucht, Dutch bocht, Danish bught "bight, bay"), from PIE root *bheug- (3) "to bend," with derivatives referring to bent, pliable, or curved objects (cognates: Old English beag, Old High German boug "ring;" see bow (v.)). Sense of "indentation on a coastline" is from late 15c.
Wiktionary
n. 1 A corner, bend, or angle; a hollow; as, the bight of a horse's knee; the bight of an elbow. 2 An area of sea lying between two promontories; larger than a bay, wider than a gulf 3 A curve in a rope
WordNet
n. a loop in a rope
a bend or curve (especially in a coastline)
a broad bay formed by an indentation (a bight) in the shoreline; "the Bight of Benin"; "the Great Australian Bight"
the middle part of a slack rope (as distinguished from its ends)
v. fasten with a bight
Wikipedia
bight may refer to:
- Bight (geography), recess of a coast, bay, or other curved feature
- Bight (knot), a curved section, slack part, or loop in rope (used in the terminology of knot-tying)
In knot tying, a bight is a curved section or slack part between the two ends of a rope, string, or yarn. "Any section of line that is bent into a U-shape is a bight." An open loop is a curve in a rope narrower than a bight but with separated ends. The term is also used in a more specific way when describing Turk's head knots, indicating how many repetitions of braiding are made in the circuit of a given knot.
Usage examples of "bight".
I went looking for another place, and I wound up on Bight nigh twenty years ago.
The terrain from the cove on the shore of Bight where the dory sheltered was more a cliff than a slope.
That she might have need for weapons for as long as she stayed on Bight was beyond question.
And Dr Maturin here would also like to know something of the matter: not the nautical side or the particular winds in the Bight of Benin, you understand, but the more general aspects.
It is all inshore work on a very low coast all the way down to the Bight of Biafra, mangrove swamps and mud for hundreds of miles and mosquitoes so thick you can hardly breathe, particularly in the rainy season: though every now and then there are inlets, little gaps in the forest if you know where to look, and that is where the smaller schooners go, sometimes taking a full cargo aboard in a day.
At the same time the others will work right along the coast, moving as fast as ever they can to keep ahead of the news that we are here, right along the coast, while we keep pace offshore, from Cape Palmas to the Bight of Benin.
But tell me about this Bight, Jack: are there sirens along its shores, or terrible reefs?
I tell you of a point that has been fretting my mind ever since the Bight of Benin, when you told me of your uneasiness about two of the ships?
The river took a deep bight there, so Alvin had only a short walk through pretty dry country to get to the town.
The Barrier formed a little bight at the spot where the landing was made, and the ice sloped gradually down to the sea.
On the way back the ship entered the same bight that Borchgrevink had visited in 1900, and a balloon ascent was made on the Barrier.
I had devoted special study to this peculiar formation in the Barrier, and had arrived at the conclusion that the inlet that exists to-day in the Ross Barrier under the name of the Bay of Whales is nothing else than the self-same bight that was observed by Sir James Clark Ross -- no doubt with great changes of outline, but still the same.
We held on to the east outside this drift-ice and along the eastern Barrier till past midnight, but as Balloon Bight was not to be found, we returned to the above-mentioned break or cape, where we lay during the whole forenoon of the 13th, as the ice was too thick to allow us to make any progress.
It proved that Balloon Bight and another Bight had merged to form a great bay, exactly as described by Sir Ernest Shackleton, and named by him the Bay of Whales.
Although the bight coming through the companion should have warned him, he was still astonished by the brilliance of the moonlit night.