bosun's chair

9.6

A seat hung from ropes that holds a person while they work high above, for example on a ship

noun
/ˈboʊsənz tʃɛr/

Specialized

: silla de contramaestre

The sailor was securely lifted into the air in a bosun's chair while repairing the ship's sails.

Examples

Using a bosun's chair, the crew member was suspended over the side to paint the hull.
For safety, always inspect the bosun's chair before using it to work over the side of the ship.
Modern climbers sometimes use a bosun's chair for building maintenance or window cleaning on skyscrapers.
The sailor sat in the bosun's chair while repairing the rigging high above the deck.
He sat in the bosun's chair while painting the mast.
The crew used a bosun's chair to reach the top of the sail.
To reach the high mast, they carefully secured a bosun's chair to the ropes before hoisting him up.

Synonyms

boatswain's chair

vsbosun's chair

Specialized

9.8

A strong seat hung by ropes to hold a person working high on a ship

is the shorter informal spelling for the same suspended board seat

How Safe

safety harness

4 3.4

loop knot

1 5.3

to scaffold

5.8

bosun's chair

Specialized

9.6

platform

90 1.6

Surface Forms

bosun's chair singular

bosun's chairs plural

Morphology

bosun's + chair

While 'chair' clearly signals a seat and 'bosun's' (boatswain's) places the item in a maritime/work context, the specific sense — a suspended board or seat rigged with ropes to hoist a person while working aloft — is a specialized extension not fully predictable from those parts. A B1 learner who knows the constituents might infer a sailor's chair but would probably not deduce the suspended/work-platform function without prior exposure.

Etymology

The name bosun's chair comes from life on old ships. A bosun was the crew member who cared for sails and ropes, and a simple chair or board was tied to ropes to lift a person up the mast to fix things, so the name now means 'a seat tied to ropes for working high up'.