mizzenmast
Americannoun
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the third mast from forward in a vessel having three or more masts.
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the after and shorter mast of a yawl, ketch, or dandy; jiggermast.
noun
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(on a yawl, ketch, or dandy) the after mast
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(on a vessel with three or more masts) the third mast from the bow
Etymology
Origin of mizzenmast
First recorded in 1375–1425, mizzenmast is from late Middle English meson mast. See mizzen, mast 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.
There is rope everywhere — running down from the ceiling, coiled underfoot — and it’s easy to imagine you’re standing on the boom of a mizzenmast.
From Washington Post • Jun. 26, 2017
As I watched, the mizzenmast lay flat above the comber's white water.
From Time Magazine Archive
To such landlubbers, nautical language all sounds distressingly like shiver-me- mizzenmast or belay-the-taffrail or somesuch, and they quickly jump ship in search of books written in more accessible prose.
From Time Magazine Archive
Farther down the fleet, the crew on Carlo Falcone's 67-year-old Fife-designed yawl Mariella were busy reefing and shaking in tune with the lightning-lit 40-knot squalls, until losing the top of their mizzenmast.
From Time Magazine Archive
The Dunmore’s mizzenmast, cracked by shot, collapsed, and took with it the main topmast.
From "The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume II: The Kingdom on the Waves" by M.T. Anderson
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.
