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Webster 1913 Edition


Kedge

Kedge

(kĕj)
,
Verb.
I.
[
imp. & p. p.
Kedged
(kĕjd)
;
p. pr. & vb. n.
Kedging
.]
[Cf. dial. Sw.
keka
to tug, to drag one’s self slowly forward; or perh. fr.
ked
, and
kedge
,
Noun.
, for
keg anchor
, named from the
keg
or cask fastened to the anchor to show where it lies.]
(Naut.)
To move (a vessel) by carrying out a kedge in a boat, dropping it overboard, and hauling the vessel up to it.

Kedge

,
Noun.
[See
Kedge
,
Verb.
T.
]
(Naut.)
A small anchor used whenever a large one can be dispensed with. See
Kedge
,
Verb.
T.
, and
Anchor
,
Noun.

Webster 1828 Edition


Kedge

KEDGE

,
Noun.
[allied probably to cag and keg.] A small anchor, used to keep a ship steady when riding in a harbor or river, and particularly at the turn of the tide, to keep her clear of her bower anchor, also to remove her from one part of a harbor to another, being carried out in a boat and let go, as in warping or kedging. [Sometimes written kedger.]

KEDGE

,
Verb.
T.
To warp, as a ship; to move by means of a kedge, as in a river.

Definition 2024


kedge

kedge

English

Noun

kedge (plural kedges)

  1. (nautical) A small anchor used for warping a vessel; also called a kedge anchor.
    • 1896, J.C. Hutcheson, "Young Tom Bowling":
      The chaps who had gone off in the cutter had been equally spry with their job, bending on a stout hemp hawser through the ring of the kedge anchor, which they dropped some half a cable's length from the brig, bringing back the other end aboard, where it was put round the capstan on the forecastle.
  2. (Yorkshire) A glutton.

Translations

Verb

kedge (third-person singular simple present kedges, present participle kedging, simple past and past participle kedged)

  1. (transitive) To warp (a vessel) by carrying out a kedge in a boat, dropping it overboard, and hauling the vessel up to it.
  2. (intransitive, of a vessel) To move with the help of a kedge, as described above.
    • 1911, Harry Collingwood, "Overdue":
      [] there was a stretch of twelve miles of channel running in a north-easterly direction which the ship could not possibly negotiate under sail unless a change of wind should occur — of which there seemed to be absolutely no prospect. The only alternative, therefore, would be to kedge those twelve miles; truly a most formidable undertaking for four persons — one of them being a girl — to attempt.
    • 2004, David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas
      By noon the men had loaded the cargo & Prophetess was kedging out of the bay against unfavourable winds.

Translations