ship-shapeadj.adv.

Brit.

/ˈʃɪpʃeɪp/,

/ˌʃɪpˈʃeɪp/, U.S.

/ˈʃɪpˌʃeɪp/

Forms: Also 1600s -shapen.

Etymology: < ship n.¹ + shapen adj. (which was later reduced to shape).

1. Arranged properly, as things on board ship should be; trim, orderly: originally Nautical but frequently in general use. Sometimes passing into adv., in a seamanlike manner, in trim fashion.

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the world > relative properties > order > [adjective] > tidy

queemc1450

trig1513

trimc1521

neat1594

polite1602

terse1602

unlittered1612

ship-shape1644

snod1717

tight1720

redd1753

(as) neat (also clean) as a (new) pin1769

mack1825

tidy1828

slick1833

ship-shapely1843

trimly1858

taut1870

1644 H. Mainwaring Sea-mans Dict. 81 It [sc. the rake] being of no use for the Ship, but only for to make her Ship shapen, as they call it.

1644 H. Mainwaring Sea-mans Dict. 113 Wale-reared, that is, when a ship is built right up, after she comes to her bearing, this is unsightly, and (as they terme it) not ship shapen.

1769 W. Falconer Universal Dict. Marine Ship Shape,..in the manner of an expert sailor; as, the mast is not rigged ship-shape; trim your sails ship-shape.

1823 J. F. Cooper Pioneers II. v. 83 It would have been more ship-shape to lower the bight of a rope.

1839 Naut. Mag. & Naval Chron. 8 165 (heading) Neither ship-shape nor Bristol fashion.

1840 R. H. Dana Two Years before Mast xxii. 221 There was no foolish gilding and gingerbread work,..but everything was ‘ship-shape’.

1850 H. Bridge Personal Recoll. N. Hawthorne (1893) 122 We..have done a great deal towards making the establishment ‘ship-shape’ and comfortable.

1864 Ld. Tennyson Enoch Arden in Enoch Arden, etc. 13 Look to the babes, and till I come again, Keep everything shipshape, for I must go.

1889 H. O'Reilly & J. Y. Nelson Fifty Years on Trail 249 In a week..we got shipshape and business commenced.

2. In attributive position.

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1846 C. Dickens Dombey & Son (1848) iv. 25 The shop..seemed almost to become a snug, sea-going, ship-shape concern.

1847 T. De Quincey Spanish Mil. Nun in Wks. (1862) III. 72 She..did it herself in a ‘ship-shape’, orthodox manner.

1855 R. Browning Bishop Blougram in Men & Women I. 212 Neat ship-shape fixings and contrivances.

Derivatives

ˈship-shaped adj.

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1842 W. Irving Let. 30 Sept. (1982) III. 342 Tell him not to ‘cast all his bread upon the water’ in the shape of ships, however ship shaped they may be.

1889 J. J. Welch Text Bk. Naval Archit. i. 8 To get the volume of displacement of a ship-shaped vessel when floating at a given water line.

ˈship-ˌshapely adj.

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