> as lemmas

1613 B. Rich Excellency Good Women 10 It is the property of a good ship to answere her Helme readily and not to bee heard of stirreage but to feele the Routher quickly and thereby to be turned, ruled and directed in the course that she should hould.

1751 R. Paltock Life Peter Wilkins I. viii. 74 What we had taken for Land, was a Rock of an extraordinary Height, to which, as we advanced nearer, the Ship increased its Motion; and all our Strength could not make her answer her Rudder any other Way.

1765 London Mag. Aug. 410/1 In the position I stood, I saw that the ship answered her helm, as I had cunned her, and as fast as I wanted.

1837 Gambler's Dream I. ii. 130 She will answer her wheel as true and as free as the mouth of an Arabian horse.

1865 Times 19 Dec. 10/2 The ship was quick in answering her helm, and her steering arrangements are excellent.

1886 Frank Leslie's Pop. Monthly Aug. 147 The two stout men had their hands upon the iron frame, giving it a gentle impulse, which it quickly answered, toward the narrow doorway leading to the furnace.

1911 W. McCay In Land of Wonderful Dreams 29 Oct. in Little Nemo 1905–1914 (2000) 319/1 I do not know whether my rudder fails to answer me or if I am in an air pocket!

1948 S. M. Loring in D. Samson Teen-age Aviation Stories 179 Metal clanged harshly against the fuselage but the plane answered the controls and he bored in, his own guns lashing the big ship's bridge.

1990 J. McPhee Looking for Ship 222 With more ship and the same rudder, she probably does not answer the helm as quickly as she did when she was smaller.

1684 R. Waller tr. Ess. Nat. Exper. Acad. del Cimento 6 The former immediately answer to the least change of the Air.

1697 J. Dryden tr. Virgil Georgics i, in tr. Virgil Wks. 57 The Glebe will answer to the Sylvan Reign, Great Heats will follow, and large Crops of Grain. View more context for this quotation

1772 Chinese Traveller II. 131 The beak and neck is joined to the body of the animal by a concealed hinge, in order that it may easily play and answer to the least motion of the head.

1821 J. Howison Sketches Upper Canada iv. 48 Her length is so great, that she answers very slowly to the helm.

1854 J. W. Moore Compl. Encycl. Mus. 283/1 After many trials he produced, in 1808, a new kind of grand piano, in which the action answered more promptly to the touch.

1879 E. E. Frewer tr. J. Verne Dick Sands viii. 82 The finback was obviously bent on a third onslaught upon the boat, which, being in spite of all the men's exertions still more than half full of water, no longer answered readily to the rudder-oar.

1907 Commerc. Motor 20 June 382/1 We know of no other steam or petrol lorry, of such weight, that answers so quickly to the wheel with so little effort.

1922 E. R. Burroughs Chessmen of Mars (2007) vii. 121 The ship answered perfectly to the controls which regulated her altitude.

1995 J. T. de Kay Chron. Frigate Macedonian 206 She sailed sluggishly, due to the excess weight of Antarctic stiffening in her hull, but answered smoothly enough to her helm.