Crossword clues for gunwale
gunwale
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Gunwale \Gun"wale\, n. [Gun + wale. So named because the upper guns were pointed from it.] (Naut.) The upper edge of a vessel's or boat's side; the uppermost wale of a ship (not including the bulwarks); or that piece of timber which reaches on either side from the quarter-deck to the forecastle, being the uppermost bend, which finishes the upper works of the hull. [Written also gunnel.]
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
Wiktionary
n. (context nautical English) The top edge of the hull of a nautical vessel, where it meets the deck.
WordNet
Wikipedia
The gunwale is the top edge of the side of a boat.
Originally the gunwale was the " gun ridge" on a sailing warship. This represented the strengthening wale or structural band added to the design of the ship, at and above the level of a gun deck. It was designed to accommodate the stresses imposed by the use of artillery.
In wooden boats, the gunwale remained, mounted inboard of the sheer strake, regardless of the use of gunnery. In modern boats, it is the top edge of the side where there is usually some form of stiffening.
On a canoe, the gunwale is typically the widened edge at the top of the side of the boat, where the edge is reinforced with wood, plastic or aluminum and to which the thwarts are attached. Modern cedar-strip canoes have gunwales which consist of inner and outer parts called "inwales" and "outwales". These two parts of the gunwale give rigidity and strength to the hull. The inwale will often have "scuppers" or slots cut into the inwale to allow water to drain when the canoe hull is turned upside down for storing.
On a rowing boat (especially in sports), the gunwale is sometimes referred to as the saxboard.
On a narrowboat or canal boat, the gunwale is synonymous with the side deck - a narrow ledge running the full length of the sides of the boat allowing a person (cautiously) to walk along the side of the cabin, generally with the aid of a handrail mounted on the roof.
Usage examples of "gunwale".
That meant standing in the boat while Cashel floated alongside, then pulling up his outside arm to roll him over the gunwale.
Mistress Kaline, who spent most of every voyage sprawled face down on a grating, close to the gunwale so that she could stick her head over the side whenever another spasm struck her.
So, indeed, if those memoirs were in fact produced, Ecu would be fascinated by how many ways Kenna could find to avoid the simple fact that he was, and had been since he was a baby ballot-box-stuffer, Crooked to the Gunwales.
Well before the seedling was too heavy to ride the remaining hull without sinking it gunwale down, it had become far too bulky for even Keo and the captain together to hoist, regardless of ingenious improvisations of cordage.
When the dinghy was afloat, its flat stern toward the shore, Lamar stood knee-deep in the water, holding the gunwales and looking around us, and I helped Christopher in, also keeping an eye on the water.
Bridgeboro friends and a frantic, shrieking creature whose streaming hair was plastered over his face and who was in a perfect panic of fright as every moment the gunwale of the loggy boat gave with his weight and lowered his head into the water.
Connover aboard and it was in their clumsy progress across the river that one of the gunwales of the already loggy boat had gone under, shipping more water than the craft could carry besides its living occupants.
It was after this adjustment that the sailor, Luge, found himself at an oar, seated beside the gunwale of the longship.
She leaned over the gunwale again, catching her bleached and knotted braids in one hand and retching so horribly that anyone not privy to the situation might be forgiven for believing that a sheep was being slowly and grotesquely strangled.
Our gunwales had been torn away, our single sail had been rent to ribbands, and borne down the stream of the wind.
They scurried to obey, but the fire was spreading swiftly, eating into the stern and dancing along the gunwale, reaching up hungrily towards the furled sails on their outstretched yards.
He gripped the gunwale and waited to discover if the tanist was about to throw him overboard.
Small labor would it be to add thole pins along the gunwales, rework the footings for quick stepping or unstepping of the mast, then lighten them a bit to give more speed and ease of handling.
By the time Tristan returned to the bow, she had unlashed her staff from its mount on the gunwale.
He knelt on the gunwale and lowered the bonito over the side, solicitous as a nursemaid.