[? short for KEDGE-ANCHOR. Also catch: see CATCH sb.3] = KEDGE-ANCHOR.
1769. Falconer, Dict. Marine (1789), Kedge, a small anchor used to keep a ship steady whilst she rides in a harbour or river, particularly at the turn of the tide…. The kedges are also … useful in transporting a ship, i.e. removing her from one part of the harbour to another, by means of ropes.
1833. M. Scott, Tom Cringle, ix. (1859), 197. The schooner every now and then taking the ground, but she was always quickly warped off again by a kedge.
1854. H. Miller, Sch. & Schm. (1858), 22. The other moiety of the men, tugging hard on kedge and haulser, drew the vessel off.
Comb. 1836. Encycl. Brit. (ed. 7), XII. 684/1. This is … prevented by a kedge-rope that hinders her from approaching it.
