berths

Noun

berth (plural berths)

1. (broadly) A place for a vessel to lie at anchor or to moor.
   • Tho' vve vvere again got near our harbour by three in the afternoon, yet it ſeemed to require a full hour or more, before vve could come to our former place of anchoring, or birth, as the captain called it.a. 1755 (date written), Henry Fielding, The Journal of a Voyage to Lisbon, […], London: […] A[ndrew] Millar, […], published 1755, →OCLC, page 191
2. (broadly) A room in a vessel in which the officers or company mess (“eat together”) and reside; also, a room or other place in a vessel for storage.
   • And vvhen he had ſhevvn me their birth (as he called it) I vvas filled vvith aſtoniſhment and horror.—VVe deſcended by divers ladders to a ſpace as dark as a dungeon, vvhich I underſtood vvas immerſed ſeveral feet under vvater, being immediately above the hold: I had no ſooner approached this...1748, [Tobias Smollett], “I am Reduced to Great Misery—Assaulted on Tower-hill by a Press-gang, who Put Me on Board a Tender—My Usage there—My Arrival on Board of the Thunder Man of War, […]”, in The...
3. (broadly) A place on a vessel to sleep, especially a bed on the side of a cabin.
   • Passengers their births are clapt in, / Some to grumble, some to spew. / 'Hey day! call you that a cabin? / Why 'tis hardly three feet square; / Not enough to stow Queen Mab in— / Who the deuce can harbour there?'1809 June 30, Lord Byron, “Letter XXXVI. To Mr. Hodgson.”, in Thomas Moore, editor, Letters and Journals of Lord Byron: With Notices of His Life, […], volume I, London: John Murray, […], published...
4. (broadly) A job or position on a vessel.
   • He was now a temperate man for life, and capable of filling any berth in a ship, and many a high station there is on shore which is held by a meaner man.1840, R[ichard] H[enry] D[ana], Jr., chapter XXIII, in Two Years before the Mast. […] (Harper’s Family Library; no. CVI), New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers […], →OCLC, page 247
5. (broadly) An assigned place for a person in (chiefly historical) a horse-drawn coach or other means of transportation, or (military) in a barracks.
   • [W]ith worldly wisdom, the first comer hastens to secure the best birth in the coach for himself, and to make the most convenient arrangement for his baggage before the arrival of his competitor.1816, [Walter Scott], chapter I, in The Antiquary. […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, →OCLC, pages...
6. (broadly) A bunk or other bed for sleeping on in a caravan, a train, etc.
   • Some passengers boarded the train there and I heard a woman's low tones, a southern voice, rich and full. Then quiet again. Every nerve was tense: time passed, perhaps ten minutes, possibly half an hour. Then, without the slightest warning, as the train rounded a curve, a heavy body was thrown into...1909, Mary Roberts Rinehart, “A Torn Telegram”, in The Man in Lower Ten, New York, N.Y.: Grosset & Dunlap, →OCLC, page 27

See all 19 meanings of berth