sb. Naut. Also 6 yardes-, 7 yards-, 7–8 yard’s-. [f. YARD sb.2 5 + ARM sb.1 8 a.] Either of the two ends of a yard; esp. that part of either end which is outside the sheave-hole. Often used for the yard as a whole.
1553, etc. [see b].
1665. Pepys, Diary, 18 Sept. It being a place just wide enough, and not so much hardly, for ships to go through to it, the yard-armes sticking in the very rocks.
1756. Gentl. Mag., Nov., 506/2. So near as to be almost on board each other, our yard-arms very near touching hers.
1833. M. Scott, Tom Cringle, vi. Aloft there! lie out, you Perkins, and reeve a whip on the starboard yard-arm.
1855. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., xv. III. 609. The vast wood of masts and yardarms below London Bridge.
b. in reference to hanging or ducking a person from the extremity of a yard as a punishment.
1553. in Hakluyt, Voy. (1589), 266. For pickerie ducked at the yardes arme, and so discharged.
1585. T. Washington, trans. Nicholay’s Voy., II. x. 44 b. [He had] three stroppados at the yardes arme of the gally.
1627. J. Taylor (Water P.), Armado, B 7. They are duck’á from the yeard arme of State, into the deep sea of disgrace.
1746. Brit. Mag., 48. I … shall go near to complement you with the Ceremony of the Yard-arm.
1755. Smollett, Quix., IV. xi. (1803), IV. 235. He ordered the two Turks … to be hanged at the yard’s arm.
1870. Thornbury, Tour rd. Eng., I. ix. 188. It was the time of hard fighting,… and frequent stringing up at the yard-arm.
1887. Times, 11 Aug., 13/2. The improbability of seeing them … in their proper place at the yard-arm of one of Her Majesty’s ships.
c. advb. phr. yard-arm and (or to) yard-arm, said of two ships so near to one another that their yard-arms touch or cross. Also yard-arm to or with (another ship).
1666. Lond. Gaz., No. 60/1. The Saphire and Success … bore in among them, laying yard-arm to yard-arm with the Admiral and Vice-Admiral. Ibid. (1697), 3288/2. They lay Yards-Arm and Yards-Arm for 5 Glasses.
1759. Ann. Reg., Chron., 62/1. The second lieutenant then came upon deck, and fought the ship bravely, yard arm and yard-arm.
1781. Log of Albemarle, 30 Oct., in Nicolas, Disp. Nelson (1846), VII. p. iii. Finding the Albemarle yard-arm with them they submitted.
1867. H. Kingsley, Silcote of S., xlvii. The old English (and French) method of laying himself yardarm to the enemy, and boarding him suddenly.
1887. Besant, The World went, etc. vi. An engagement, yard-arm to yard-arm, with a Frenchman.
transf. 1862. Thornbury, Turner, I. xvi. 299. To leave it [sc. a picture by Turner] to the nation on condition of its being hung yard-arm and yard-arm with Claude.
d. attrib.
c. 1860. H. Stuart, Seaman’s Catech., 18. The goose neck or yard arm iron.
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., Yard-arm cleats, wooden wedges fixed on the yards at those points where they support the lifts and braces. Ibid., Yard-arm piece, an octagonal piece of timber supplied to replace a yard-arm if shot away.
1883. Man. Seamanship for Boys, 68. The yard-arm men get hold of the head-earrings.
Hence Yard-arm v. nonce-wd. (a) yard-arm and yard-arm (intr.), to be yard-arm and yard-arm; (b) trans. to hang (a person) from the yard-arm.
1840. Thackeray, George Cruikshank, Wks. 1900, XIII. 312. They are yard-arm and yard-arming, athwart-hawsing, marlinspiking,… as honest seamen invariably do, in novels.
1903. F. W. Van Praag, in Munsey’s Mag. (U. S.), XXVI. 499. I wish to God you’d been yard armed ten years back!
