Word.ws English Dictionary

marling spike

marling spike is the alternative spelling of marlinspike.

Meaning of marlinspike

Noun

marlinspike (plural marlinspikes)

  1. A tool, consisting of a pointed metal spike, used to manipulate the strands of rope or cable when knotting and splicing.
    • […] the afterguard, of whom they have but a sorry opinion, chiefly landsmen, never going aloft except to reef or furl the mainsail and in no wise competent to handle a marlinspike or turn in a dead-eye, say.1924, Herman Melville, chapter 12, in Billy Budd, London: Constable & Co.

Forms of marling spike

pluralmarling spikes

Questions about marling spike

What is marling spike the alternative spelling of?
Marling spike is the alternative spelling of marlinspike.

Words near marling spike in the dictionary

  1. marlined
  2. marlines
  3. marlinespike
  4. marlinespikes
  5. marling
  6. marling spike
  7. marling spikes
  8. Marlingford
  9. Marlingford and Colton
  10. marlings
  11. marlingspike

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: marling spike (page history and authors); marlinspike (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: “marling spike.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/marling_spike. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.