bilboes
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Shakspeare mentions Hamlet thinking of a kind of fighting, "That would not let me sleep: methought, I lay Worse than the mutines in the bilboes."
From The Sailor's Word-Book An Alphabetical Digest of Nautical Terms, including Some More Especially Military and Scientific, but Useful to Seamen; as well as Archaisms of Early Voyagers, etc. by Belcher, Edward, Sir
The bilboes is a bar of iron with fetters annexed to it, by which mutinous or disorderly sailors were anciently linked together.
From Folk-lore of Shakespeare by Thiselton-Dyer, Thomas Firminger
Two weeks later his trial was had, and he was ordered "to be set into the bilboes," and afterwards sent prisoner to England.
From England in America, 1580-1652 by Tyler, Lyon Gardiner
The bilboes were the first engine of punishment in Boston, and were used until 1639, and perhaps much later.
From Stage-coach and Tavern Days by Earle, Alice Morse
A slang term for the ship's irons or bilboes.
From The Sailor's Word-Book An Alphabetical Digest of Nautical Terms, including Some More Especially Military and Scientific, but Useful to Seamen; as well as Archaisms of Early Voyagers, etc. by Belcher, Edward, Sir