fid
1 Americannoun
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a stout bar of wood or metal placed across a lower spar so as to support a higher one.
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a stout bar used to hold a running bowsprit in its extended position.
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a wooden or metal pin for parting strands of a rope.
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a bar or pin used as a key or toggle.
abbreviation
noun
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a spike for separating strands of rope in splicing
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a wooden or metal bar for supporting the heel of a topmast
combining form
Etymology
Origin of fid1
First recorded in 1605–15; origin uncertain
Origin of -fid2
< Latin -fidus divided, equivalent to -fid- (variant stem of findere to split) + -us adj. suffix
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.
Then as soon as I fid someone, he cancels everything?
From Slate • Nov. 11, 2019
He picked them up, took the fid off the can, and painstakingly pulled the bag out while trying not to make very much noise.
From "Where Things Come Back" by John Corey Whaley
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Also, the lifting an upper mast to withdraw its fid, in order that it may be lowered by means of the mast-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
So, when we get them on to the stream, We'll knock out the fid and roll them in, Heigh ho! drink round, &c.,
From Forest Life and Forest Trees: comprising winter camp-life among the loggers, and wild-wood adventure. with Descriptions of lumbering operations on the various rivers of Maine and New Brunswick by Springer, John S.
It is kept aloft for driving the iron fid in or out of the top-mast.
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
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.