midshipn.adj.
/ˈmɪdʃɪp/, U.S. /ˈmɪdˌʃɪp/ Nautical.
A. n.† 2. The rower who sits in the middle of a boat. Obsolete. rare.
1. The middle part of a ship or boat. Now rare.
ΘΚΠ
society > travel > travel by water > vessel, ship, or boat > parts of vessels > body of vessel > middle of vessel > [noun]
midship1488
midshipsc1620
1488 (c1478) Hary Actis & Deidis Schir William Wallace (Adv.) (1968–9) xi. l. 844 Him selff and Blayr and the knycht Longaweill, Thir thre has tane to kepe the myd-schip weill.
1555 Act 2 & 3 Ph. & Mary c. 16 §7 Any Wherry..which shall not be..iv. Foot and a Half broad in the Midship.
a1618 W. Raleigh Observ. Royal Navy (1650) 33 It is a great weakening to a ship to have so much weight..at both the ends, and nothing in the Mid-ship.
1859 J. H. Ingraham Pillar of Fire i. i. 31 A singer who stood upon the bridge across the mid-ship.
1988 New Scientist 1 Sept. 67/1 A crossbeam, 80 feet long, straddles the hull at midship, with hydrofoils at each end.
ΘΚΠ
society > travel > travel by water > one who travels by water or sea > sailor > types of sailor > [noun] > rower or oarsman > oarsman in specific position in boat
strokesman1769
middleman1801
stroke1825
bowman1829
bow1830
stroke-oar1836
stroke-oarsman1838
bow-oar1851
midship1897
1897 M. Kingsley Trav. W. Afr. 173 Midship backed and flapped like fury.
B. adj. (attributive).
Situated or occurring in the middle part of a ship.
ΚΠ
a1522 G. Douglas tr. Virgil Æneid (1957) v. iv. 52 Pistrys..Hyr forstam by hir mydschip haldys ay.
1635 R. Payne Let. 21 June in Coll. Lett. Illustr. Progr. Sci. in Eng. (1841) 65 I have here returned you back your papers, conteining the probleme of the mid-ship-mould.
1846 A. Young Naut. Dict. at Floor The Rising-Floors imply those floor-timbers which rise gradually from the plane of the mid-ship-floor, so as to sharpen the form of the vessel towards the bow and the stern.
1867 W. H. Smyth & E. Belcher Sailor's Word-bk. Hogged, a significant word derived from the animal; it implies that the two ends of a ship's decks droop lower than the midship part.
1928 G. Campbell My Mystery Ships (1942) xi. 224 The men at the midship gun had the screen to hide.
1994 P. Grescoe Blood Vessel 85 She led the way to a midship elevator... It took us below decks to the crew's quarters.
Compounds
midship beam n. the longest beam in a timber-built ship, forming part of the midship frame, used as the basis for the dimensions and proportions of the ship's masts and yards.
ΚΠ
c1620 Treat. Shipbuilding (Admiralty Libr. MS 9) in R. Magowan tr. P. Kirsch Galleon (1990) Pl. 92 Ye Depth of the Hold is Taken from that Middship Beam to ye upper edge of the Keel.
1644 H. Mainwaring Sea-mans Dict. 6 The mayne-Beame..next to the mayne-Mast..we call the mid-ship Beame.
1692 Smith's Sea-mans Gram. (new ed.) ii. xv. 122 The breadth upon the Midship-beam 20 foot.
1850 J. Greenwood Sailor's Sea-bk. 95 The Midship-Beam is the longest beam of the ship, lodged in the mid ship frame, or between the widest frame of timbers.
1874 S. J. P. Thearle Naval Archit. (new ed.) I. 109 Mast and pall bitt beams, and beams under the heel of bowsprit,..must not be less in size than the midship beam.
ΚΠ
c1620 Treat. Shipbuilding (Admiralty Libr. MS 9) in R. Magowan tr. P. Kirsch Galleon (1990) Pl. 92 The Breadth of the Beam at ye Middship bend.
a1647 P. Pett Life in Archaeologia (1796) 12 248 The great platform,..where all the lines of the midship bend were drawn..with their centres, perpendiculars, and sweeps.
1805 Shipwright's Vade-mecum 117 Midship-bend or frame, that bend which is called Dead-Flat.
1850 J. Greenwood Sailor's Sea-bk. 159 Whole-moulded, a term applied to the bodies of those ships which are so constructed that one mould made to the midship bend, with the addition of a floor hollow, will mould all the timbers, below the main breadth, in the square body.
midship body n. a portion of the middle of a ship of uniform cross-section (see quot. 1875).
ΚΠ
1875 E. H. Knight Amer. Mech. Dict. II. 1437/2 When the middle of the ship has a portion of a uniform cross-section, such is called the midship body.
midship frame n. the timber or frame in a ship which has the greatest breadth.
ΚΠ
1754 M. Murray tr. H. L. Duhamel du Monceau Elements Naval Archit. 7 in Treat. Ship-building All these [frames of timber] being united together, and secured by cross-bars, form a circular inclosure, that which incloses the greatest space is called the midship frame.
1830 P. Hedderwick Treat. Marine Archit. 247 Set up the tangent-lines at the exact half-breadth of the midship-frame, on each side of the centre-line.
1971 J. Needham Sci. & Civilisation in China iii. 417 Most symmetrical [of hulls] are those in which the master-couple (i.e. the ribs enclosing the greatest area) coincides with the midship frame.
midship section n. the cross-section of a ship at its broadest point; the notional line marking this point and dividing fore from aft.
ΚΠ
1849 Sci. Amer. 8 Dec. 91 The horizontal diameters are so shortened as to form an eliptic water line, when a line is drawn along the bends, or acute curves of the midship sections.
1861 H. A. Sommerfeldt Construction of Ships 27 Put the breadth on the timbers in the load water-line at the greatest transverse section, or what is called the midship section = B.
1889 J. J. Welch Text Bk. Naval Archit. vi. 81 Fig. 73..shows a half midship section of the vessel represented in Fig. 51; i.e. a section which would be obtained by cutting the ship in the middle of its length by a vertical athwart-ship (or transverse) plane.
1914 Amer. Jrnl. Internat. Law 8 765 The bow..is the strongest and least vulnerable part of a steamer. The midship section is the weakest.
1955 C. N. Longridge Anat. Nelson's Ships i. i. 18 The dividing line between the fore and after bodies is the midship section and was known as the ‘dead flat’.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2002; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
<
n.adj.1488