Word.ws English Dictionary

davit

/ˈdeɪvɪt/

davit noun: a spar formerly used on board of ships, as a crane to hoist the flukes of the anchor to the top of the bow, without injuring the sides of the ship.

davit: a spar formerly used on board of ships, as a crane to hoist the flukes of the anchor to the top of...
Image: RanchoRosco on en.wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

davit (plural davits)

  1. A spar formerly used on board of ships, as a crane to hoist the flukes of the anchor to the top of the bow, without injuring the sides of the ship.
  2. A crane, often working in pairs and usually made of steel, used to lower things over an edge of a long drop off, such as lowering a maintenance trapeze down a building or launching a lifeboat over the side of a ship.
    • A solid, pyramid-like hummock of ice, left to starboard as the steamer ascended, and which projected close alongside the upper, or boat-deck, as she fell over, had caught, in succession, every pair of davits to starboard, bending and wrenching them, smashing boats, and snapping tackles and gripes...1912, Morgan Robertson, The Wreck of the Titan: Or, Futility
    Synonyms:
    fish davit

Synonyms of davit

  • fish davit

Forms of davit

pluraldavits

Origin of davit

The word davit is derived from Middle English and Old French daviot, which is a diminutive of David; thus it means "little David", maybe because those small cranes can handle a much bigger lifeboat.

Words that rhyme with davit

Questions about davit

What does davit mean?
Davit means a spar formerly used on board of ships, as a crane to hoist the flukes of the anchor to the top of the bow, without injuring the sides of the ship.
What part of speech is davit?
Davit is a noun.
How do you pronounce davit?
Davit is pronounced /ˈdeɪvɪt/.
What is the plural of davit?
The plural of davit is davits.

Words near davit in the dictionary

  1. Davison County
  2. Davisson
  3. Davissons
  4. Davistown
  5. Davisville
  6. davit
  7. davits
  8. Davitt
  9. Davlin
  10. Davlins
  11. Davo

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: davit (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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-davit.wav.

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