Meanings
plural gibstaffs
- obsoleteA staff to gauge water, or to push a boat.
1 more example
The house boats of the Mohannas are called “Doondees“. One family may live in the same small boat for as long as half a century. These “Doondees“ range in size between 6 m long and 2 m wide up to a length of 14 m and a width of 4 m in the middle of the boat. The boat is basically steered by a gibstaff.
1987, G. Mustafa Shar, “The Mohanna — An Unknown Life on the Indus River”, in Reports on Field Work Carried out at Mohenjo-Daro: Interim Reports, volume 2 (1983–84), →ISSN, page 173 - historicalobsoleteA staff used in stick fighting; a quarterstaff.
Origin
From the dialectal term gib (“hooked stick”) + staff.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
gibstaff. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/gibstaff
“gibstaff.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/gibstaff. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “gibstaff,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/gibstaff.
Source: gibstaff on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.