Crossword clues for binnacle
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Binnacle \Bin"na*cle\, n. [For bittacle, corrupted (perh. by
influence of bin) fr. Pg. bitacola binnacle, fr. L.
habitaculum dwelling place, fr. habitare to dwell. See
Habit, and cf. Bittacle.] (Naut.)
A case or box placed near the helmsman, containing the
compass of a ship, and a light to show it at night.
--Totten.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
"wooden box for a ship's compass," c.1750, corruption of bittacle (1620s), which is probably from Spanish bitacula or Portuguese bitacola, both from Latin habitaculum "little dwelling place," from habitare "to inhabit" (see habit).
Wiktionary
n. 1 (context nautical English) The wooden housing for a ship's compass, with its corrector magnets and illuminating arrangements; the log and other equipment for measuring the ship's speed is also stowed there. 2 The instrument cluster on a car or motorcycle.
WordNet
n. a nonmagnetic housing for a ship's compass (usually in front of the helm)
Wikipedia
A binnacle is a waist-high case or stand on the deck of a ship, generally mounted in front of the helmsman, in which navigational instruments are placed for easy and quick reference as well as to protect the delicate instruments. Its traditional purpose was to hold the ship's magnetic compass, mounted in gimbals to keep it level while the ship pitched and rolled. A binnacle may be subdivided into sections and its contents typically include one or more compasses and an oil lamp or other light source. Other devices such as a sand timer for estimating speed may have been stored in the binnacle as well.
Usage examples of "binnacle".
He could see the quartermaster was dancing from one side of the binnacle to the other, watching the luffs, while the men at the wheel felt the ship almost dead in the water.
He walked back to the binnacle and glanced down at the compass, up at the luffs of the sails and then across at the nearest dogvane.
An eight-point turn meant the men had to spin the great wheel several revolutions, and the quartermaster crouched ready over the binnacle, watching the compass and the dogvanes as well as glancing up at the luffs of the sails, which were beginning to flap as they lost the wind, although the yards were already being braced up.
The second box, with the secret papers, orders, signal book, challenge and private signals for the next three months might have been put down beside the binnacle and, as the colours came down, thrown over the side.
I had seen the same flashing light on the instrument binnacle of my car as I sat behind the broken steering wheel waiting for the police to cut me free.
I stroked it with my ring finger, were each overlaid by the inventories of a benevolent technologythe moulded binnacle of the instrument dials, the jutting carapace of the steering column shroud, the extravagant pistol grip of the handbrake.
His photographs of sexual acts, of sections of automobile radiator grilles and instrument panels, conjunctions between elbow and chromium window-sill, vulva and instrument binnacle, summed up the possibilities of a new logic created by these multiplying artefacts, the codes of a new marriage of sensation and possibility.
He rolled the cigarettes on to the instrument binnacle, then resumed his discussion with the young women.
Carrying his penis in his hand to shield it from the sharp metal, Vaughan climbed into the front seat and began to draw the outline of his penis against the instrument panel and centre arm-rest, marking out the erotic focus of a crash or sex act, celebrating the marriage of his own genitalia and the skull-shattered dashboard binnacle against which this middle-aged woman dentist had died.
The carapace of the instrument binnacle, the inclined planes of the dashboard panel, the metal sills of the radio and ashtrays gleamed around me like altarpieces, their geometries reaching towards my body like the stylized embraces of some hyper-cerebral machine.
The jutting carapace of the instrument binnacle presided over the dark cleft between his buttocks.
Sir Francis extinguished the candle in the binnacle so that the ship showed no lights, then passed the keys of the arms chests to his boatswains.
She dropped from the taffrail, ran to the binnacle and picked up the tumbler she had left at its foot.
A couple of seamen at the wheel were keeping the ship sailing fast, with Swan occasionally peering down at one or the other of the dimly lit compasses in the binnacle, his confidence restored.
I was on deck when the mutiny started and the Signal Book and private signals were on the binnacle box.