cockbill

English

Etymology

See cock (“to set erect”).

Verb

cockbill (third-person singular simple present cockbills, present participle cockbilling, simple past and past participle cockbilled)

1. (nautical, transitive) To tilt up one end of, so as to make almost vertical.

   to cockbill the yards as a sign of mourning

2. (nautical, transitive) To suspend (the anchor) from the cathead preparatory to letting it go.

Related terms

• acockbill

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 The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.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 “cockbill”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)