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Definition 2025
crosstree
crosstree
English
Noun
crosstree (plural crosstrees)
- (nautical) A light timber or metal spreader fixed athwartships part way up a mast to spread the shrouds from higher up
- 1851, Herman Melville, Moby Dick, chapter 35
- Your most usual point of perch is the head of the t’ gallant-mast, where you stand upon two thin parallel sticks (almost peculiar to whalemen) called the t’ gallant crosstrees.
- 1851, Herman Melville, Moby Dick, chapter 35
Translations
a light timber to spread the shrouds