Meanings
plural Billy Pughs
- A type of personnel basket for transferring people between vessels or other structures at sea or over water.
Billy Pughs were used at many lighthouses.
2008, Betty S. Veronico, Lighthouses of the Bay Area, Arcadia Publishing, page 422 more examples
The crew stood on the deck of the supply boat, waiting in silence for the crane to lower the "Billy Pugh".
2005, Paul Carter, Don't Tell Mum I Work on the Rigs, Crows Nest: Allen and Unwin, page 199A special net, called a Billy Pugh net after its inventor, lifts the astronauts, one by one, into the waiting rescue chopper.
2020, John Rocco, How We Got to the Moon, page 235
Origin
Named after Billy Pugh, American deckhand who invented the device and founded the Billy Pugh Company in 1957.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
Billy Pugh. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Billy%20Pugh
“Billy Pugh.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Billy%20Pugh. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “Billy Pugh,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Billy%20Pugh.
Source: Billy Pugh on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.