lubber's holen.
Nautical.
A hole in the ship's top, close to the mast, affording an easier way of ascent or descent than by climbing the futtock shrouds.
ΘΚΠ
society > travel > travel by water > vessel, ship, or boat > equipment of vessel > masts, rigging, or sails > spar > [noun] > mast > platform at top of mast > hole in
lubber's hole1790
1790 Coll. Voy. round World VI. xix. 2195 He becomes as much an object of ridicule, as a sailor who descends through lubber's hole.
1792 J. Wolcot Peter's Prophecy in Wks. (1792) III. 75 And yet, Sir Joseph, fame reports you stole To Fortune's topmast through the lubber-hole.
1834 F. Marryat Peter Simple I. vii. 85 He proposed that I should go through lubber's hole.
1882 G. S. Nares Seamanship (ed. 6) 233 Pass a hawser..through the lubber's hole.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1903; most recently modified version published online December 2020).
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n.1790