Word.ws English Dictionary

hawser

/hɔːzə/US/hɔzɚ/

hawser noun: a thick or heavy-duty cable or rope used to tow or moor a ship.

hawser: a thick or heavy-duty cable or rope used to tow or moor a ship
Image: Christian Ferrer, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

hawser (plural hawsers)

  1. A thick or heavy-duty cable or rope used to tow or moor a ship.
    • Near-synonym: mooring line
    • The hawser was as taut as a bowstring, and the current so strong she pulled upon her anchor. All around the hull, in the blackness, the rippling current bubbled and chattered like a little mountain stream.1881–1882, Robert Louis Stevenson, “The Ebb-tide Runs”, in Treasure Island, London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 14 November 1883, →OCLC, part V (My Sea Adventure), page 185
    Synonyms:
    mooring line

hawser meaning in Tamil, Kannada and Vietnamese

hawser in Tamil

கம்பிவடம்

hawser in Kannada

ದೊಡ್ಡ ಹಗ್ಗ, ಹೊರಜಿ, ಸಣ್ಣ ಹೊರಜಿ

hawser in Vietnamese

cable
dây neo

Synonyms of hawser

Forms of hawser

pluralhawsers

Origin of hawser

From Middle English hauser, haucer, from Anglo-Norman haucer, from Vulgar Latin *altiāre (“to raise”), derived from Latin altus (“high”). Altered in English by mistaken association with hawse and perhaps haul. Compare French aussière, haussière.

Words formed from hawser

Phrases with hawser

Questions about hawser

What does hawser mean?
Hawser means a thick or heavy-duty cable or rope used to tow or moor a ship.
What is hawser in Tamil?
Hawser in Tamil is கம்பிவடம். See Hawser meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is hawser?
Hawser is a noun.
How do you pronounce hawser?
Hawser is pronounced /hɔːzə/ (UK).
What is the plural of hawser?
The plural of hawser is hawsers.

Words near hawser in the dictionary

  1. hawseholes
  2. hawsepipe
  3. hawsepiper
  4. hawsepipers
  5. hawsepipes
  6. hawser
  7. hawser iron
  8. hawser irons
  9. hawser-laid
  10. hawser-laid rope
  11. hawser-laid ropes

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: hawser (page history and authors); hawser (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); hawser (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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-hawser.wav.

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