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buntline

1 American  
[buhnt-lin, -lahyn] / ˈbʌnt lɪn, -ˌlaɪn /

noun

Nautical.
  1. one of the ropes attached to the foot of a square sail to haul it up to the yard for furling.


Buntline 2 American  
[buhnt-lin, -lahyn] / ˈbʌnt lɪn, -ˌlaɪn /

noun

  1. Ned, 1823–86, pen name of Edward Zane Carroll Judson.


buntline British  
/ -ˌlaɪn, ˈbʌntlɪn /

noun

  1. nautical one of several lines fastened to the foot of a square sail for hauling it up to the yard when furling

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of buntline

First recorded in 1620–30; bunt 2 + line 1

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

All this time, I was busily working, unreeving the port buntline.

From The Ghost Pirates by Hodgson, William Hope

The terms applicable to the parts of a sail comprise:—Seaming the cloths together; cutting the gores; tabling and sewing on the reef, belly, lining, and buntline bands, roping, and marling on the clues and foot-rope.

From The Sailor's Word-Book An Alphabetical Digest of Nautical Terms, including Some More Especially Military and Scientific, but Useful to Seamen; as well as Archaisms of Early Voyagers, etc. by Belcher, Edward, Sir

An eye worked into the bolt-rope of a sail, to receive a buntline.

From The Sailor's Word-Book An Alphabetical Digest of Nautical Terms, including Some More Especially Military and Scientific, but Useful to Seamen; as well as Archaisms of Early Voyagers, etc. by Belcher, Edward, Sir

I told Howe not to carry the end of the buntline too far.

From Down the Rhine Young America in Germany by Optic, Oliver

Each left a hook in the knot of the inner buntline, as he went out, and dropped the ball of marline on deck.

From Homeward Bound or, the Chase by Cooper, James Fenimore