Meaning of mainmast head | Babel Free

Definitions

The top of a sailing ship’s mainmast.

Examples

“What early philosophic hours he keeps, How regular his meals, how sound he sleeps! Not sounder he that on the mainmast head, While morning kindles with a windy red, Begins a long look-out for distant land, Nor quits till evening-watch his giddy stand, Then swift descending with a seaman’s haste, Slips to his hammock, and forgets the blast.”

“Fedallah first descried this jet. For of these moonlight nights, it was his wont to mount to the main-mast head, and stand a look-out there, with the same precision as if it had been day.”

“1912, George H. Read, The Last Cruise of the Saginaw, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, Chapter 2, p. 12, With the homeward-bound pennant flying from the mainmast head and with the contractor’s working party on board, we sailed from the Midway Islands on Friday, October 29, at 4 P.M. for San Francisco.”

CEFR level