The Collaborative International Dictionary
Accommodation \Ac*com`mo*da"tion\, n. [L. accommodatio, fr. accommodare: cf. F. accommodation.]
The act of fitting or adapting, or the state of being fitted or adapted; adaptation; adjustment; -- followed by to. ``The organization of the body with accommodation to its functions.''
--Sir M. Hale.Willingness to accommodate; obligingness.
Whatever supplies a want or affords ease, refreshment, or convenience; anything furnished which is desired or needful; -- often in the plural; as, the accommodations -- that is, lodgings and food -- at an inn.
--Sir W. Scott.An adjustment of differences; state of agreement; reconciliation; settlement. ``To come to terms of accommodation.''
--Macaulay.-
The application of a writer's language, on the ground of analogy, to something not originally referred to or intended.
Many of those quotations from the Old Testament were probably intended as nothing more than accommodations.
--Paley. -
(Com.)
A loan of money.
-
An accommodation bill or note.
Accommodation bill, or note (Com.), a bill of exchange which a person accepts, or a note which a person makes and delivers to another, not upon a consideration received, but for the purpose of raising money on credit.
Accommodation coach, or train, one running at moderate speed and stopping at all or nearly all stations.
Accommodation ladder (Naut.), a light ladder hung over the side of a ship at the gangway, useful in ascending from, or descending to, small boats.
Wiktionary
n. (context nautical English) a flight of stairs or a ladder for lowering over the side of a ship for access to and from a small boat.
WordNet
n. (nautical) a portable ladder hung over the side of a vessel to give access to small boats alongside
Wikipedia
An accommodation ladder is a portable flight of steps down a ship's side.
Accommodation ladders can be mounted parallel or perpendicular to the ship's board. If the ladder is parallel to the ship, it has to have an upper platform. Upper platforms are mostly turnable. The lower platform (or the ladder itself) hangs on a bail and can be lifted as required.
To prevent damage to boats going under the ladder as the water level rises and falls, a boat fender is fitted to the end of the ladder.
The ladder has handrails on both sides for safety. Accommodation ladders are constructed in such a way that the steps are horizontal whatever the angle of inclination of the ladder. The lower end the ladder/lower platform is based on a roll to compensate for the motion of the ship in relation to the quay.
Use of a Jacob's ladder instead of the accommodation ladder to allow a maritime pilot to board is prohibited.
Usage examples of "accommodation ladder".
A big raft made of three layers of lashed-together logs had been secured to the ship's side, and an accommodation ladder run up the side of the hull to give easy access to the deck.
Northampton, and a stocky captain in dress whites jumped out to the accommodation ladder.
There was an accommodation ladder leading from an opening in the rail down to the water, and nothing else but a radio that someone had dropped.
It took five minutes for the accommodation ladder to be lowered to the surface of the water, then for an officerde Banderano was surprised to see it was the Second Engineerto find a submachine gun and come to the rail, and finally for two seaman to find a coil of line and descend to the ladder's platform with it.
The oars were in place, and in another moment they had shoved off from the landing stage which formed the foot of the accommodation ladder.
He was red in the face as he bawled the order for the manning of the yards, and sighed with evident relief as Alexander's departure down the accommodation ladder made it necessary for the aide-de-camp to follow him.