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Glite Dictionary
🛳️ Left side of ship 🛳️ On left side
larboard

larboard

3 9.9
The left side of a ship or plane when you face forward
  • noun
  • Archaic
translation icon : banda de estribor
  • On deck, floating object off the larboard quarter.

Examples

  • During the drill, all activities were conducted on the larboard side of the ship.

  • Show them your larboard side.

    Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (2007)

  • The crew was organized into two halves, the larboard watch and starboard watch.

  • Here he is at last, the nasty little slug! Four sailors were loading a boat drawn up tight against the Louisa's larboard side.

    Fiction book (2002)

  • We'll sail in until we sight them, make a larboard tack... and rake them with broadsides as we cross the harbor.

    The Black Swan (1942)

  • The captain ordered the crew to moor the vessel to the larboard side of the dock.

  • As we approached the harbor, we spotted a seagull resting on the larboard rail.

Synonyms

portside
vslarboard
  • Specialized
5 4.2

The left side of a ship or plane when facing forward

is an older word now chiefly replaced by the common noun form
port
vslarboard
  • Specialized
6.2

On the left side of a ship or aircraft when facing forward

is an older word now chiefly replaced by that standard name

Antonyms

starboard
  • Specialized
131 7.1

The right side of a ship or plane when facing forward

Surface Forms

larboard singular
larboards plural

Morphology

larboard = lade + board (opaque) = lade + board

Historically from 'lade' + 'board' but the form changed (lade → lar) and the source morpheme is archaic, so learners cannot reliably derive the meaning.

Etymology

Larboard comes from old sea words lade and board, where lade means 'to load' and board means 'side'; it was the side of a ship used for loading, so it became the name for the 'left' side and was later mostly replaced by port to avoid confusion with 'starboard'.