nautical

comparative more nautical · superlative most nautical · abbreviation naut.

1. not comparableusuallyOf, relating to, or characteristic of sailing, sailors, or the sea.

   Near-synonyms: marine, maritime, naval, seafaring

   5 more examples

   I was mostly unfamiliar with the nautical terms used in the sailing documentary.

   The occurrence to which we allude—fraught as our shores are with recollection of nautical disaster—is one which must powerfully impress even the most unreflecting mind.

   1831 July 30, Vyvyan [pseudonym], “The Topographer. Travelling Notes in South Wales.”, in The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction: […], volume XVIII, number 501, London: […] J[ohn] Limbird, […], →OCLC, page 70, column 2

   Anywhere in the immediate vicinity there might be seen […] little timber midshipmen in obsolete naval uniforms, eternally employed outside the shopdoors of nautical instrument-makers in taking observations of the hackney coaches.

   1846 October 1 – 1848 April 1, Charles Dickens, “In Which Some More First Appearances Are Made on the Stage of These Adventures”, in Dombey and Son, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1848, →OCLC, page 24

   In front is a leather rack, in which to keep your speaking trumpet, pipe, telescope, and other nautical conveniences.

   1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “The Mast-Head”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, page 173

   The mainsail was "scandalised"—a nautical mode of describing a sail reefed at both ends; […]

   1887, Mrs. Dominic D[aniel] Daly [i.e., Harriet Douglas Daly], chapter 1870, in Digging, Squatting, and Pioneering Life in the Northern Territory of South Australia, London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle & Rivington, […], →OCLC, page 16

   Synonyms: nautic, marine, maritime, naval, seafaring

plural nauticals

1. archaicrareA nautical person or writer; a sailor.

   Then comes the formal pompous introduction / Of Slowjohn’s cabin-staff, état major, / Which argued attitudial instruction / Beyond belief, in nauticals ashore.

   1831, canto I, in Paul Heidiger, editor, The Didoniad, a Semi-Virgilian Nautic Epic, […], Edinburgh: Henry Constable, […]; London: Hurst, Chance, and Co., →OCLC, page 30

   3 more examples

   [T]he waves appeared to fall away under her keel and sides, offering the minimum of resistance to her course, owing to the peculiar form of her “entry.” Still, the nauticals looked knowing, and said, “Oh ay, this is all very well for a schooner on this wind—let us see how she’ll come back, when the wind will be a point or so worse for her!”

   1831 August 16, correspondent, “The Yacht Clubs”, in The Times, number 20,883, London: […] John Joseph Lawson, […], published 18 August 1831, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 7, column 1

   But, Reader, I scorn it—the fact is, I fear, / To be candid, I can’t make these matters so clear / As Marryat, or Cooper, or Captain Chamier, / Or Sir E. Lytton Bulwer, who brought up the rear / Of the “Nauticals,” just at the end of last year, / With a well-written preface, to make it appear / That his play, the Sea-Captain, ’s by no means Small beer;—[…]

   1840, Thomas Ingoldsby [pseudonym; Richard Barham], “Mr. Peters’s Story. […] The Bagman’s Dog”, in Bentley’s Miscellany, London: Richard Bentley, […], →ISSN, →OCLC, page 284

   [F]rom there you can see the small boats moving in the harbor. I wanted no sudden nauticals swaggering unexpectedly round the old bollards while I was engaged in psychic exploration.

   1985, Jonathan Gash [pseudonym; John Grant], chapter 4, in Pearlhanger (A Lovejoy Novel of Suspense), New York, N.Y.: A Joan Kahn book, St. Martin’s Press, →ISBN, page 33

   Synonyms: nautic