Chapter 67 - Cutting In — Vocabulary

Vocabulary Words from Chapter 67 - Cutting In

shamble (noun)

A slaughterhouse or meat market; a place of butchery and carnage.

ex officio (adverb)

By virtue of one's position or office; as an inherent part of one's role.

ponderous (adjective)

Extremely heavy; weighty and unwieldy.

hawser (noun)

A thick rope or cable used for mooring or towing a ship.

windlass (noun)

A mechanical device with a horizontal drum, used aboard ships for hauling rope or chain by cranking.

careens (verb)

Tilts or leans sharply to one side, especially of a ship.

semicircular (adjective)

Having the shape of half a circle; forming a half-round line or incision.

scarf (noun)

(whaling term) The line along which blubber is cut as it peels off the whale's body in a continuous strip.

prodigious (adjective)

Remarkably great in size, extent, or degree; enormous.

dexterously (adverb)

With skill and ease; showing nimble, adroit physical ability.

boarding-sword (noun)

A long, keen-edged weapon used by harpooneers to sever the strip of blubber during cutting in.

twain (noun)

(archaic) Two; into two separate parts.

blanket-piece (noun)

The long upper strip of blubber that has been peeled from the whale and severed for lowering below decks.

sundry (adjective)

Various; of several different kinds or sorts.

assuaging (verb)

Making less intense or severe; relieving or easing.