through the hawsehole

prepositional phrase

Of an officer: having risen from the grade of an ordinary seaman, whose original position in the vessel was forward, before the mast.

Ask AI about this wordChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

Meanings

prepositional phrase
  1. slangnauticalOf an officer: having risen from the grade of an ordinary seaman, whose original position in the vessel was forward, before the mast.

    Eyeing Don Benito’s small, yellow hands, he easily inferred that the young captain had not got into command at the hawse-hole but the cabin-window, and if so, why wonder at incompetence, in youth, sickness, and aristocracy united?

    1856, Herman Melville, “Benito Cereno”, in The Piazza Tales, Dix & Edwards, page 138
Cite this entry
APA

through the hawsehole. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/through%20the%20hawsehole

MLA

“through the hawsehole.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/through%20the%20hawsehole. Accessed November 5, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “through the hawsehole,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/through%20the%20hawsehole.

Source: through the hawsehole on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.