steeves

Verb

steeve (third-person singular simple present steeves, present participle steeving, simple past and past participle steeved)

1. (archaic) To project upward, or make an angle with the horizon or with the line of a vessel's keel; said of the bowsprit, etc.
2. (transitive) To stow, as bales in a vessel's hold, by means of a steeve.
   • "They are all alike to me." And indeed to a landsman, the nodding schooners around seemed run from the same mold.
     "They ain't, though. That yaller, dirty packet with her bowsprit steeved that way, she's the Hope of Prague. Nick Brady's her skipper, the meanest man on the Banks. […]"1897, Rudyard Kipling, Captains Courageous

See all 4 meanings of steeve