Word.ws English Dictionary

rogue's yarn

rogue's yarn noun: a thread of red, blue or gold worsted, worked into the ropes manufactured in the government Royal dockyards, to identify them if stolen. Red for Pompey (Portsmouth), Blue for Guz (Plymouth), Gold for Chatham. Also a blue thread worked into canvas for the same purpose.

Noun

rogue's yarn (plural rogue's yarns)

  1. (historical, slang) A thread of red, blue or gold worsted, worked into the ropes manufactured in the government Royal dockyards, to identify them if stolen. Red for Pompey (Portsmouth), Blue for Guz (Plymouth), Gold for Chatham. Also a blue thread worked into canvas for the same purpose.

Forms of rogue's yarn

pluralrogue's yarns

Questions about rogue's yarn

What does rogue's yarn mean?
Rogue's yarn means a thread of red, blue or gold worsted, worked into the ropes manufactured in the government Royal dockyards, to identify them if stolen. Red for Pompey (Portsmouth), Blue for Guz (Plymouth), Gold for Chatham. Also a blue thread worked into canvas for the same purpose.
What part of speech is rogue's yarn?
Rogue's yarn is a noun.
What is the plural of rogue's yarn?
The plural of rogue's yarn is rogue's yarns.

Words near rogue's yarn in the dictionary

  1. rogue waves
  2. rogue's galleries
  3. rogue's gallery
  4. rogue's march
  5. rogue's marches
  6. rogue's yarn
  7. rogue's yarns
  8. rogue-like
  9. rogue-likes
  10. rogue-lite
  11. rogue-lites

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: rogue's yarn (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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