haw·ser

(hô′zər)

A cable or rope used in mooring or towing a ship.

[Middle English, from Anglo-Norman haucer, from Old French haucier, to hoist, from Vulgar Latin *altiāre, alteration of Late Latin altāre, from Latin altus, high; see al- in Indo-European roots.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

hawser

(ˈhɔːzə) (ˈhɔːlsə) or

halser

(Nautical Terms) nautical a large heavy rope

[C14: from Anglo-French hauceour, from Old French haucier to hoist, ultimately from Latin altus high]

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

haw•ser

(ˈhɔ zər, -sər)

n.

a heavy rope for mooring or towing.

[1300–50; Middle English haucer < Anglo-French hauceour= Middle French hauci(er) to hoist (< Late Latin *altiāre to raise, derivative of Latin altus high; see haughty) + -our -or², -er²]

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun

hawser - large heavy rope for nautical use

rope - a strong line

Translations

حَبْل سَميك

vlečné lano

kabeltrosse

Trosse

câble de remorque

hajókötél

landfesti

cavo gherlino piccola gomena

trose

halatpalamar

大缆粗绳系船索

hawser

[ˈhɔːzəʳ] N → guindaleza f, calabrote m

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

hawser

[ˈhɔːzə^r] n (= cable) → haussière f, aussière f

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

hawser

n (Naut) → Trosse f

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

hawser

(ˈhoːzə) noun

a thick rope or a steel cable for towing ships or tying them to a dock etc.

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

First she loomed before me like a blot of something yet blacker than darkness, then her spars and hull began to take shape, and the next moment, as it seemed (for, the farther I went, the brisker grew the current of the ebb), I was alongside of her hawser and had laid hold.

The hawser was as taut as a bowstring, and the current so strong she pulled upon her anchor.

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"You had better put another bight of a hawser astern, Mr.

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And he would force you too to take the end of his own wire hawser, for the use of which there was of course an extra charge.

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"Sir, -- I lie here with my hawser up and down, and send my cabin-boy to informe.

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There are no waves lapping, but only a steady swirl of water softly running against the hawser. I can hear men's voices calling, near and far, and the roll and creak of oars in the rowlocks.

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Cutting the great cable into pieces, such as I could move, I got two cables and a hawser on shore, with all the ironwork I could get; and having cut down the spritsail-yard, and the mizzen- yard, and everything I could, to make a large raft, I loaded it with all these heavy goods, and came away.

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Say he were pinioned even; knotted all over with ropes and hawsers; chained down to ring-bolts on this cabin floor; he would be more hideous than a caged tiger, then.

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Then the men loosed the hawsers and took their places on the benches.

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She walked helplessly around the harbour filled with vessels, and knocked against hawsers. Presently the ground sloped abruptly, lights flitted to and fro, and she thought all at once that she had gone mad when she saw some horses in the sky.

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When they had come inside the harbour they furled the sails and laid them in the ship's hold; they slackened the forestays, lowered the mast into its place, and rowed the ship to the place where they would have her lie; there they cast out their mooring-stones and made fast the hawsers. They then got out upon the sea-shore and landed the hecatomb for Apollo; Chryseis also left the ship, and Ulysses led her to the altar to deliver her into the hands of her father.

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The oyster pirates lay snugly together at short hawsers, the weather being fine, and they protested loudly at our ignorance in putting out such an unwarranted length of anchor-chain.

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