Word.ws English Dictionary

hull-down

hull-down adjective: of a ship: so far distant that only the masts and sails are visible above the horizon.

Adjective

hull-down (not comparable)

  1. Of a ship: so far distant that only the masts and sails are visible above the horizon.
    • In the morning a homeward-bound ship passed us hull down,—the first we had seen for months; […]1898 September, Joseph Conrad, “Youth: a Narrative”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXIV, number DCCCCXCV, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publication Co., page 319, column 2
    • Shortly they would be hull-down.1960, J.E. Macdonnell, Escort Ship, Sydney: Horwitz Publications, published 1972, page 30
  2. Of a tank: stopped with its hull protected by ground to the front, so that its occupants or weapons have a line of sight forward.

Synonyms of hull-down

Forms of hull-down

alternative formhull down

Questions about hull-down

What does hull-down mean?
Hull-down means of a ship: so far distant that only the masts and sails are visible above the horizon.
What part of speech is hull-down?
Hull-down is an adjective.

Words near hull-down in the dictionary

  1. hull splash
  2. hull splashed
  3. hull splashes
  4. hull splashing
  5. hull work
  6. hull-down
  7. hull-less
  8. hull-up
  9. hull-work
  10. hullaballo
  11. hullaballoed

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: hull-down (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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