[
UK
/ˈəʊkəm/
]
NOUN
- loose hemp or jute fiber obtained by unravelling old ropes; when impregnated with tar it was used to caulk seams and pack joints in wooden ships
How To Use oakum In A Sentence
- Some tutors attempt the _suaviter in modo_, my schoolmaster preferred the _fortiter in re_; and, as the boatswain said, by the "instigation" of a large knotted stick, he drove knowledge into our skulls as a caulker drives oakum into the seams of Frank Mildmay Or, The Naval Officer
- To stop a boat leaking you "chinch" the seams with oakum. Le Petit Nord or, Annals of a Labrador Harbour
- For calking the seams they made oakum of dry seaweed, which was hammered in between the planks; then these seams were covered with boiling tar, which was obtained in great abundance from the pines in the forest. The Mysterious Island
- Pepys relates how he met a seaman returning from fighting the Dutch with his eye-socket "stopped with oakum," and as late at least as the Battle of Trafalgar it was customary, in amputations, to treat the bleeding stump with boiling pitch as a cauterant. The Press-Gang Afloat and Ashore
- We cold just get into the sailroom and got up a new forecourse and stuck it full of oakum and rags, and put itt under the ship's bottom; this is called fothering the ship. "The Gallant, Good Riou", and Jack Renton 1901
- Beneath a lantern on the forecastle deck I saw a few wretched sailors hunched in apelike postures pounding oakum between the decking planks. STONE THE CROWS, IT'S A VACUUM-CLEANER
- Remember to use a filler, like oakum, for wide joints before you caulk.
- Teak, mahogany, white oak, carvel planked, and oakum plugged; stout as a horse.www. deadfishermanguy.com OpEdNews - Diary: Dead Fisherman Guy 8
- Diary Entry by Allan Wayne (about the author) yahooBuzzArticleHeadline = 'Dead Fisherman Guy 8'; yahooBuzzArticleSummary = 'Teak, mahogany, white oak, carvel planked, and oakum plugged; stout as a horse.' OpEdNews - Diary: Dead Fisherman Guy 8
- Morgan, ascending first, and seeing my face almost covered with brains and blood, concluded I was no longer a man for this world; and, calling to Thompson with great emotion, bade him come up, and take his last farewell of his comrade and countryman, who was posted to a better place, where there were no Mackshanes nor Oakums to asperse and torment him. The Adventures of Roderick Random
