Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
🐭 To hurry away 🪣 A coal container 🚢 A small hatch
scuttle

scuttle

9.0
An opening with a cover that gives access between decks on a ship
  • noun
  • /ˈskʌtəl/
  • Specialized
translation icon : escotilla
  • The crew hurriedly climbed through the scuttle to escape the flooding compartment of the ship.

Examples

  • When I see his shadow rising on the wall, I leap for a ladder and, pushing through the scuttle, find myself looking up into my captain's cabin.

    Fiction book (1998)

  • The sailor used the scuttle to access the lower deck during the emergency drill.

  • To reach the cargo hold, he opened the scuttle and descended cautiously down the ladder.

Synonyms

opening
vsscuttle
179 1.0

A space that lets people move through, for example a door

is a covered ship entrance designed for access between decks
hatch
vsscuttle
140 3.7

A cover that closes an opening on a car or boat

is the opening itself rather than the closing cover
hatchway
vsscuttle
  • Specialized
4 7.0

An opening in a floor or ship deck that lets people go between levels

is the entrance specifically fitted with a cover on a ship deck

Compounds

coal scuttle
  • Archaic
9.1

A metal container with a sloping front for holding and pouring coal into a fire

Surface Forms

scuttle singular
scuttles plural

Etymology

Scuttle (ship hatch) comes from an older word for a small cut or opening in a deck, like a covered 'hole' you can climb through. So a scuttle on a ship is simply a hatch that gives you access between decks.