about ship
US/əˌbaʊt ˈʃɪp/
about ship verb: tack; to cause to turn into the wind and through the other side ending with a full 180 degree turn.
Verb
about ship (third-person singular simple present about ships, present participle about shipping, simple past and past participle about ship or about shipped)
- Tack; to cause to turn into the wind and through the other side ending with a full 180 degree turn.
- The ships fired grape shot but to no effect. They about ship and went to sea.1807, A Journal kept at Nootka Sound, John R. Jewitt, page 27
- This Amanda refused and was about shipping to the other side, when the gentleman sprang out, clasped her in his arms, lifted her in, whistled to his horse and the next moment was flying about like mad …1841 October 17, Amanda Green, "Life of the Nymphs 11", The Sunday Flash, quoted in The Flash Press: Sporting Male Weeklies in 1840s New York, page 148
Examples of about ship in a sentence
- The captain saw that no further progress could be made with safety, so he about ship, and ran for Newcastle.1857, John Askew, A Voyage to Australia and New Zealand, page 251:
- They stood for the land, and as they could not fetch in before dark, they about ship, and lay "a hull, all that night," finding abundance of fish, "very large and great" [...]1859, Ancient dominions of Maine, Rufus King Sewall, page 82:
- So we about shipped and started back (did not the steamboat men swear some then)?1863 March 24, Edward Redington, transcribed letter to his wife, Wisconsin Historical Society, page 81
- Then, his men sweating and straining and reloading, he about ship and did it again and again.1993, Leslie Conron Carola, editor, The Irish: A treasury of art and literature, page [191]:
Forms of about ship
| third-person singular present | about ships |
|---|---|
| present participle | about shipping |
| past participle | about ship |
| past | about ship |
| past participle | about shipped |
| past | about shipped |
Origin of about ship
From the imperative phrase used as an order aboard sailing ships.
Questions about about ship
- What does about ship mean?
- About ship means tack; to cause to turn into the wind and through the other side ending with a full 180 degree turn.
- How do you use about ship in a sentence?
- The captain saw that no further progress could be made with safety, so he about ship, and ran for Newcastle.
- What part of speech is about ship?
- About ship is a verb.
- How do you pronounce about ship?
- About ship is pronounced /əˌbaʊt ˈʃɪp/ (US).
- What is the past tense of about ship?
- The past tense of about ship is about ship.
Words near about ship in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: about ship (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.
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Cite this entry: “about ship.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/about_ship. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.