bilge

plural bilges

1. countableuncountablenauticalThe rounded portion of a ship's hull, forming a transition between the bottom and the sides.
2. countableuncountablenauticalThe lowest inner part of a ship's hull, where water accumulates.

   […] water deluged into the cockpit and Niagaraed into the bilge. Only constant use of the pump kept the floorboards from going adrift.

   1943, MotorBoating, volume 71, number 1, page 134

3. uncountableThe water accumulated in the bilge; bilge water.
4. slanguncountableStupid talk or writing; nonsense.

   talk bilge

   3 more examples

   complete bilge

   "The whole thing is the most absolute bilge and a disgrace to our legislature."

   1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “In which the Notorious Criminal Gets what the British Law Considers to be His Deserts”, in The Land of Mist (eBook no. 0601351h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, published April 2019

   That they can, with a straight face, praise it as good scholarship calls into question whether they can any longer recognize even passable scholarship. More likely, however, they know bilge when they see it—but laud this particular bilge nonetheless because it furthers a common partisan interest.

   2026, Michael Anton, “Fury Road”, in The Claremont Review of Books, The Claremont Institute, →ISSN, →OCLC

5. countableuncountableThe bulging part of a barrel or cask.

present singular third person bilges · participle present bilging · participle past bilged · past bilged

1. intransitivenauticalTo spring a leak in the bilge.
2. intransitiveTo bulge or swell.
3. transitivenauticalTo break open the bilge(s) of.