iron-sickadj.
/ˈʌɪənsɪk/, U.S. /ˈaɪ(ə)rnˌsɪk/ Nautical. Now historical.
Of a wooden ship, or the wood of such a ship: held together with corroded fastenings, and hence leaky. Also occasionally (of a ship's metal fastening): corroded. Cf. nail-sick adj.
ΘΚΠ
society > travel > travel by water > vessel, ship, or boat > vessel with reference to qualities or attributes > [adjective] > not seaworthy or unstable > leaky > at nails
iron-sick1626
nail-sick1850
1626 J. Smith Accidence Young Sea-men 13 A ship cranke sided, Iron sicke, spewes her okum.
1644 H. Mainwaring Sea-mans Dict. 55 A Ship or boate is said to be Iron-sick, when the bolts, speeks or nailes are so eaten away with the rust or the salt-water, that they stand hollow in the planckes.
1664 P. Pett Let. 16 Dec. in State Papers Henry VIII (P.R.O.: SP 29/106) f. 136, [no. 95] The unicorne (as the rest) prooves uerie Iron sicke under-water; her sheathing is all off.
1704 R. Park Defensive War by Sea i. x. 14 Bars of Iron let into each Plank..being always exposed to the Weather, will..make the Plank Iron-Sick.
1784 London Mag. Mar. 180/2 Nails thus prepared [sc. tarred] are not subject to rust, or to render the wood what is called iron-sick.
1841 Proc. Inst. Civil Engineers 132 What is technically termed ‘ironsick’, meaning that the bolt-holes became so widened by corrosion that the bolts were loosened.
1870 Merchants' Mag. Feb. 92 Oak..contains a pyroligneous acid which eats the iron and reacts by rendering the wood ‘ironsick’.
1920 Mariner's Mirror 6 26/1 The eye-bolts of their chains made their ageing timber ironsick.
1977 P. O'Brian Mauritius Command iii. 73 She was certainly iron-sick fore and aft, if not amidships too.
2005 M. McCarthy Ships' Fastenings xiii. 109 Corrosion..eventually progressed to the point where a bolt could become ‘iron-sick’ or slack in the timbers.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2013; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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adj.1626