Word.ws English Dictionary

abaft

UK/əˈbɑːft//əˈbæft/

abaft preposition: behind; toward the stern relative to some other object or position; aft of.

Preposition

abaft

  1. Behind; toward the stern relative to some other object or position; aft of.
    • The captain stood abaft the wheelhouse.
    • […] two drunken Turkes, that were in the Frigot with twelue others, discharged two Calieuers, with which they killed two Souldiours, that stood abaft our Gally.1620, Miguel de Cervantes, chapter 63, in Thomas Shelton, transl., The Second Part of the History of the Valorous and Witty Knight-Errant, Don Quixote of the Mancha, London: Edward Blount, page 432
    Synonyms:
    abaft of

Adverb

abaft (comparative more abaft, superlative most abaft)

  1. On the aft side; in the stern.
    • We drifted with the wind abaft.
    • The mate sleeps abaft.
  2. (obsolete) Backwards.

abaft meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Kannada

abaft in Tamil

பின்புறமாக, கப்பலின் பின்புறமாக, கப்பலின் பின்னணியத்தில்

abaft in Urdu

جَہاز کا پِچھلا حِصہ, پِچھاڑی, پِيچھے, عَقَب

abaft in Bengali

(nautical) behind; toward the stern relative to some other object or position; aft of
পিছন দিকে, পশ্চাদ্দিকে poścaddike, জাহাজের পিছনের অর্ধাংশে jahajer pichoner ordhaṅśe

abaft in Kannada

ಹಡಗಿನ ಹಿಂಭಾಗದ ಕಡೆಗೆ
More languagesFewer languages
abaft in Arabic
خَلْف ḵalf, فِي مُؤَخَّرَة fī muʔaḵḵara

Examples of abaft in a sentence

  • “[…] Read the sign up there—NO SMOKING ABAFT THE WHEEL!”1869, Mark Twain, chapter 3, in The Innocents Abroad, Hartford: The American Publishing Company, page 35:
  • The Exchange also being farther from the fire, afterward was more easily cleared, and fell off from abaft.1599, Nicholas Downton, “The firing and sinking of the stout and warrelike Carack called Las Cinque Llaguas”, in Richard Hakluyt, editor...
  • By clapping the sails to the mast, and lightening the ship abaft, we swayed her off with little damage.1785, John Rickman, Journal of Captain Cook’s Last Voyage, London: E. Newbery, Part 1, p. 103:
  • Stubb was struck by a shower of outcries and anathemas proceeding from the Captain’s round-house abaft;1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “'”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London...

Synonyms of abaft

  • abaft of

Forms of abaft

Preposition
alternative formbaft
Adverb
comparativemore abaft
superlativemost abaft

Origin of abaft

From Middle English obaft, baft, baften, from Old English beæftan; be (“by”) (modern English by) + æftan (“behind”) (modern English after). See also aft.

Words that rhyme with abaft

Questions about abaft

What does abaft mean?
Abaft means behind; toward the stern relative to some other object or position; aft of.
What is abaft in Tamil?
Abaft in Tamil is பின்புறமாக, கப்பலின் பின்புறமாக, கப்பலின் பின்னணியத்தில். See Abaft meaning in Tamil.
How do you use abaft in a sentence?
“[…] Read the sign up there—NO SMOKING ABAFT THE WHEEL!”
What part of speech is abaft?
Abaft can be a preposition or an adverb.
How do you pronounce abaft?
Abaft is pronounced /əˈbɑːft/ (UK).

Words near abaft in the dictionary

  1. Abads
  2. abaecin
  3. abaecins
  4. Abaetetuba
  5. abaffe
  6. abaft
  7. abafungin
  8. Abag
  9. Abaga
  10. Abagor
  11. abagovomab

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: abaft (page history and authors); abaft (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); abaft (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); abaft (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-abaft.ogg, en-ca-abaft.ogg.

Cite this entry: “abaft.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/abaft. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.