bitt
- noun
- /bɪt/
- Specialized
:
bit
- After finishing the maneuver, he tied the rope to the bitt to ensure the ship remained in place.
- a pair of bitts
Examples
-
The sailor secured the mooring line to the sturdy bitt at the dock.
-
When the line had been paid out to its final ten feet, he threw a figure eight around the bow mooring bitt and scrambled into the wheelhouse through a window opening now stripped even of its frame.
Fiction book (1994) -
I was bent over the forward bitts.
Fiction book (1995) -
I slipped it over the bitts at once because, with our lighter draft, we were bearing down upon him and we must pull away.
Fiction book (1991) -
I slipped the line off the bitts, lifted it deliberately, and dropped it overboard.
Fiction book (1995) -
And at once I threw his after breast line off the bitts and whipped it over his bulwarks.
Fiction book (1995) -
I shouted to the man that he had one more pair of bitts, and I would send my manila anchor cable to him with the heaving line.
Fiction book (1991) -
I think because he was in a rage, he made his way aft on the pitching deck, hauled in his wire, and dropped the eye on the other pair of bitts on his stern.
Fiction book (1991) -
He hauled in the cable, made a bowline in it, and flung the loop onto the bitts.
Fiction book (1991) -
And if it did sink suddenly, it might be impossible to cast off the anchor line swiftly enough on our own barge, with the weight of the sinking vessel on the bitts.
Fiction book (1991)
Synonyms
2
7.1
A short strong post used on streets to stop cars or at docks to tie boats
A large strong post on a ship's deck that holds the anchor cable
One of two strong posts on a ship deck that hold the anchor chain
Compounds
- Specialized
A pin people place across a post on a ship to stop a rope from slipping off
How Strong
Surface Forms
Etymology
Bitt probably comes from an old Germanic sea word like bit, meaning 'a small post or piece'. So a bitt is the strong post on a ship or pier where sailors tie ropes.