Aboard

adv. and prep. Also 5–7 abord(e, 6 abrode, aburd, 6–7 aboord(e, 7 abourd, and incorr. abroad. [f. A prep.¹ + BOARD, and Fr. à bord, to which apparently the modern use of aboard, on board, is chiefly due. Board is orig. Teutonic: in OE., bord a plank, table, shield, and poetically a ship, whence on borde in ship. But this poetic form seems to have died out with OE., the ordinary ME. prose being within shippes borde, within the ship’s boarding or sides. Meanwhile the Teut. bord, OHG. bort, had been adopted in Fr. as 1. board, plank, whence the boarding or sides of a vessel; hence, 2. the vessel itself, and, 3. the side or border of anything, edge, coast, shore. À bord, in or on a ship; bord à bord, board to board, side by side, hard aboard, touching; venir à bord, to come a-shore, to land; aborder to come to the side of; abord, approach, accosting. These uses and phrases were adopted in Eng. where also from the use of board in within shippes borde, etc., a-board was very soon regarded as the Eng. prep. a + board, and expanded passim into on board.]

  A.  adv.

  1.  On board, within the boards (of a ship); a. (position) in or on a ship or other floating vessel.

1587.  Turbervile, Trag. Tales (1837), 174. The men aboord that see them come Prepare them selves to fight.

1610.  Shaks., Temp., I. i. 21. Good, yet remember whom thou hast aboord.

1675.  Hobbes, Odyssey, 171. Then I my fellows bad aboard to stay And guard the ships.

1805.  Southey, Madoc, xvii. (1853), V. 128. Now all is done. Stores, beeves and flocks and water all aboard.

  b.  (motion) on to or into the ship.

1509.  Barclay, Ship of Fooles (1570), ¶¶ vj. There is great number that fayne would aborde … our ship can holde no more.

1600.  Holland, Livy, XLIII. lvi. 1148 h. C. Lucretius … himself went abourd unto a trireme galley.

1602.  Shaks., Haml., I. iii. 56. Yet heere Laertes? Aboord, aboord for shame, The winde sits in the shoulder of your saile.

1611.  Bible, Acts xxi. 2. And finding a ship sailing ouer vnto Phenicea, wee went abroad [sic], and set foorth.

1725.  Pope, Odyssey, II. 332. The Mariners by my command Shall speed aboard.

1849.  Grote, Greece, V. lvii. 118 (1862). The Syracusans got aboard, and rowed close along-shore.

  2.  Alongside, on one side (of a ship or shore). Modified by hard, close. See also BOARD-A-BOARD.

1494.  Fabyan, VII. 373. The Turkes … ordeyned .iiii. barges or suche lyke vessayles, &… sodaynly brought them a bord where y^e Cristen host lay.

1772–84.  Cook, Voyages (1790), V. 1782. He was desirous of keeping the coast of America aboard.

1881.  Daily Tel., Jan., 28. The proximity of the coast which the education of his skipper obliges him, if possible, to keep close aboard.

  b.  fig.

1758.  Dyche & Pardon, s.v. Aboard, In sports and games this phrase signifies, that the person or side in the game that was either none, or but few, has now got to be as many as the other.

  c.  To lay (a ship) aboard: to place one’s own ship alongside of (it) for the purpose of fighting.

1593.  Shaks., 2 Hen. VI., IV. i. 25. I lost mine eye in laying the prize aboord.

1655.  Heywood, Fortune by Land, etc., IV. 416. Shall we grapple, and lay their Ship aboard?

1815.  Scott, Lord of the Isles, V. xxiv. A bark from Lorn Laid them aboard that very morn.

  d.  To fall aboard. lit. of a ship: to strike its side, fall foul of it. † fig. with or of a person or thing: to come to words, to quarrel; to attack, fall upon. The of is sometimes omitted.

1604.  F. T., Case is Altered, in Thynne’s Animadv. (1865), 140. He falls aboord with him for her, to have her for his seruant.

1630.  Howell, Letters (1650), I. 387. I have sent your Lordship this small survey of the Latin … in my next I shall fall aboard of her three daughters, viz. the Italian, the Spanish, and the French.

1697.  Ray, in Phil. Trans., XIX. 636. The Horse again refused the Grass, and fell aboard the Hemlock, greedily eating it up.

1816.  ‘Quiz,’ Grand Master, i. 16. Why, are you blind?… steer large, You’ll get aboard of that coal barge.

  † e.  To bring aboard: to bring to land. To come to aboard (Fr. venir, arriver à bord): to arrive at the shore, to land. Obs.

1550.  Nicolls, Thucydides, 53. They came to aborde in the porte of Philie.

a. 1600.  Mar. of Wit & Wisd., Prol. (Shaks. Soc., 1846), 6. Then Fancy frames effects to bring his braine aborde, And shelue his ship in hauens mouth.

  f.  To haul the tacks aboard: ‘to bring their weather clues down to the chess-tree, or literally, to set the courses.’ Smyth, Sailor’s Wd.-Bk.

1549.  Compl. of Scotlande, vi. 40 (1873). Hail doune the steir burde lufe harde a burde.

  ¶  Used by Spenser catachr. for ? abroad, adrift.

1591.  Spenser, M. Hubberd’s Tale, 324. They were in doubt, and flatly set abord. Ibid. (1591[?]), Ruins of Rome, Wks. 1862, 433/1. The foord … with his tumbling streames doth beare aboord The ploughmans hope.

  B.  prep. [by omission of of, after the adv.]

  1.  On board of, within the boards or sides of; a. (position) in or on (a ship).

1607.  Capt. Keeling, in Shaks. Cent. of Praise, 79. I envited Captain Hawkins to a ffishe dinner, and had Hamlet acted abord me.

1805.  Southey, Madoc, XVII. (1853), V. 131. Is he aboard the fleet?

  b.  (motion) on to or into (a ship).

1466.  Manners & Househ. Exp. Eng., 383. My mastyr paid fore botes to set them a bord the barge.

1606.  Shaks., Ant. & Cl., II. vi. 83. Aboord my Gally, I inuite you all. Ibid. (1608), Peric., V. iii. 11. Her fortunes brought the maid aboord us.

1628.  Digby, Voy. to Medit., 1 (1868). Sent some of my men abord her.

1720.  De Foe, Capt. Singleton, xii. 205. He came aboard my ship.

1878.  G. Macdonald, Ann. Quiet Neighb., xxiv. 429. Don’t think I want to get aboard your ship.

  † 2.  Along, by the side of. To fall aboard anything = fall aboard of it: see A 2 d. Obs.

1506.  Guylforde, Pylgr., 62, § 3 (Cam. Soc.). [We] laye amost harde abrode the grete vggly rokkes.

1602.  Carew, Cornwall, 29 b. Vail’d with nights robe, they stalke the shore aboord.

1642.  Fuller, Holy & Prof. State, II. xxi. 134. They came hard aboard the shore.

1677.  Lond. Gaz., mccxxxvi. 4. The Channel close aboard the Main at Winterton-ness.

  ¶  Used by Spenser catachr. for ? abroad, across the breadth or surface of.

1591.  Spenser, Virgil’s Gnat, 46. Nor yron bands abord The Pontick sea by their huge Navy cast.