slab line

English

Noun

slab line (plural slab lines)

1. (nautical) A line or small rope by which sailors haul up the foot of the mainsail or foresail.
   • 1713, Nathaniel Ward, The Simple Cobler of Aggawam in America:

     when Kings are hailing up their topgallants , Subjects lay hold on their slablines

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “slab line”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)