What does "bitts" mean?

A frame composed of two strong oak timbers (bitt-heads) fixed vertically in the fore part of a ship, bolted to the deck beams to which are secured the cables when the ship rides to anchor

What is a synonym for "bitts"?

Common synonyms include: bollard, bollard, companion, parts, ship.

Bitts

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1
A frame composed of two strong oak timbers (bitt-heads) fixed vertically in the fore part of a ship, bolted to the deck beams to which are secured the cables when the ship rides to anchor plural, plural-only

Synonyms

All synonyms

bollard bollard companion parts ship

Etymology

From Middle English, probably of Low German or North Germanic origin, and the English form a corruption or contraction, from Old Norse biti, probably ultimately from a variant of Proto-Germanic *bitiz. Compare Swedish beting and Danish beding.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.