Bowsprit

//ˈbəʊspɹɪt// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A spar projecting over the prow of a sailing vessel to provide the means of adding sail surface.

    "There lay the Ghost, bow on to the beach, her splintered bowsprit projecting over the sand, her tangled spars rubbing against her side to the lift of the crooning waves. Something must be done, must be done."

  2. 2
    a spar projecting from the bow of a vessel wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
beakbowfigureheadmastnoserostrum

Example

More examples

"At one moment the bowsprit was taking a deadly aim at the sun in midheaven, and at the next it was trying to harpoon a shark in the bottom of the ocean."

Etymology

First attested in late 13th century. Probably borrowed from Middle Low German bochspret, from boch (“bow of a ship”) + spret (“pole”) (related to Old English spreot and English sprout).

Related phrases

reefing bowspritsailing vessel

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