leeboard

English

Etymology

From Middle English lebord, leburd, probably from Old Norse *hléborð, equivalent to lee +‎ board. Cognate with Icelandic hléborð.

Noun

leeboard (plural leeboards)

1. (nautical) A board, or frame of planks, lowered over the side of a sailboat to lessen its leeway.
   • 1909, Thomas Fleming Day, The Rudder, page 24:

     […] on the port side a sofa bed was put up and fitted with a leeboard. On the starboard side a short seat with a folding cot above, which folded  […]

   • 2014, Tristan Jones, A Steady Trade: A Boyhood at Sea, Open Road Media, →ISBN:

     Forward of the mizzenmast was an iron box in which the mainsheets worked, and to port and starboard were the leeboard winches, hand-worked.

   • 2015, Tom Cunliffe, In the Wake of Heroes: Sailing's Greatest Stories Introduced by Tom Cunliffe, Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN:

     I lowered the starboard leeboard. I sent Kester up forward with the binoculars. 'Any buoy,' I told him, 'just yell and point.'

2. (uncommon) Port, larboard (the side of a ship opposite starboard).
   • 1896, Albert Scheible, “The Need of Uniform Voltage”, in The Electrical Trade, page 5:

     Even in complete reversals from starboard to leeboard in a high sea, no shocks, either electrical or mechanical, could be observed.

   • 2004, Gayle C Avery, Andrew Bell, Martin Hilb, Anne E. Witte, Understanding Leadership: Paradigms and Cases, SAGE, →ISBN, page 212:

     […] because the leeboard side could be easily unrigged to avoid damaging the rigging, while the starboard side would be required to safely navigate the vessel.

   • 2010, George Sjouke Riemersma, 'Sa Wie It' (→ISBN), page 85:

     Riek's berth was on the starboard side with two women, and mine was on the leeboard side with two men. One of the two men was a baron, […]

Translations

board lowered over the side of a sailboat to lessen its leeway

• Finnish: laitaköli

Anagrams

• erodable, redoable