| 释义 |
▪ I. bitt, n. Naut.|bɪt|
Usually in pl. bitts. Also 6 beetes, 7–9 bits.
[Derivation uncertain: some form of the word is now found in most European languages, but its history is not clear in any: in Fr. bitte, Sp. bita, It. bitta; cf. med.L. bitus a whipping-post, ‘lignum quo vincti flagellantur’ Erfurt Gloss. In Sw. beting, Da. beding; LG. and Du. beting, Ger. bäting (perh. from Sw.) ‘bitts’; with which cf. OE. bǽting, béting ‘a cable, a rope, anything that holds or restrains.’ Cf. also ON. biti ‘a cross-beam in a house or ship, transtrum,’ according to Vigfusson, the same word as biti bit, mouthful = OE. bita, bit n.2
(Franck concludes that the word is of Teutonic origin, and from the root of bítan to bite.)]
One of the strong posts firmly fastened in pairs in the deck or decks of a ship, for fastening cables, belaying ropes, etc.; generally used in the plural. The chief pair, the riding bitts, are used for fastening the cable while the ship rides at anchor; others are the topsail-sheet bitts, carrick-bitts, wind-lass bitts, etc. Also attrib., as bitt-head, bitt-pin.
1593P. Nichols Drake Revived in Arb. Garner V. 509 Two or three yonkers, which were found afore the beetes. 1612Woodall Surg. Mate Wks. (1653) 398 A Cable as it was running out of the bits of the ship (as the Sea-men terme it). 1627Capt. Smith Seaman's Gram. ii. 10 The Bits are two great peeces of timber, and the Crospeece goeth thorow them. 1769Falconer Dict. Marine (1789), Tour-et-choque, a weather-bit of the cable, or a turn and half-turn about the bits. 1836Marryat Midsh. Easy ix, Jack stood..not far from the main bitts. c1850Rudim. Navig. (Weale) 97 Bitts..It consists of two upright pieces of oak, called Bitt-Pins, when the bitts are large, or of knees, when the bitts are small, with a cross piece fastened horizontally near the head of them. 1869E. J. Reed Shipbuild. xv. 276 To keep the bitt in its proper position.
▪ II. bitt, v.|bɪt|
[f. prec.]
trans. To coil or fasten (a cable) upon the bitts.
1769[see bitting vbl. n.2] 1833Marryat P. Simple xv, See it [the Cable] double bitted. 1840R. Dana Bef. Mast. x. 24 The chain is then passed round the windlass, and bitted.
b. Sailor's slang.
1833Marryat P. Simple iii, Come, Mr. Bottlegreen, rouse and bitt. 1836― Midsh. Easy (1863) 130 ‘Come, Easy, you are not on board now. Rouse and bitt.’ |