SPANKER • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Spanker

Add this Dictionary
to your website!
See more options...

Listen

Spanker

noun

A hitter who slaps (usually another person) with an open hand. Synonym: slapper. "My father was the designated spanker in our family"

A fore-and-aft sail set on the aftermost lower mast (usually the mizzenmast) of a vessel.

See images of 'Spanker'

Etymology of 'Spanker'

Share |

"Spanker" Quotes from Famous Books

... desperate attempt on the part of the seaman, to release his companions from imprisonment. Their apprehensions were confirmed in a space of time that seemed impossible to have enabled Captain Williams to reach his ship, by seeing the Albatross, under jib and spanker, slowly standing to the westward, and again anchoring full half a mile farther out to sea than before; not, to be sure, out of reach of the guns of the battery, but at such a distance as to render it extremely problematical whether Spanish artillerymen would be able to throw a shot ...

— An Old Sailor's Yarns • Nathaniel Ames

... wasna bred at sae short a tether; I was brought up to hack and manger. I was bred a horse-couper, sir; and if I might live to see you at Whitson-tryst, or at Stagshawbank, or the winter fair at Hawick, and ye wanted a spanker that would lead the field, I'se be caution I would serve ye easy; for Jamie Jinker was ne'er the lad to impose upon a gentleman. Ye're a gentleman, sir, and should ken a horse's points; ye see that through-ganging thing that Balmawhapple's ...

— Waverley • Sir Walter Scott

... Coming down, we found the rest of the crew just coming down the fore rigging, having furled the tattered topsail, or, rather, swathed it round the yard, which looked like a broken limb, bandaged. There was no sail now on the ship but the spanker and the close-reefed main topsail, which still held good. But this was too much after sail; and order was given to furl the spanker. The brails were hauled up, and all the light hands in the starboard watch sent ...

— Two Years Before the Mast • Richard Henry Dana

Words linked to "Spanker" : striker, hitter, spank, fore-and-aft sail, slapper