rigging

Definition

Dress; tackle; especially (nautical), the ropes, chains, etc., that support the masts and spars of a sailing vessel, and serve as purchases for adjusting the sails, etc.

Etymology

From Middle English riggyng, ryggyng, riggynge, equivalent to rig + -ing.

Example Sentences

• "The moon was full and shone down on us through the masts and rigging of an old fishing wreck, which had been grounded just off the beach where we were sitting."
• "For a time the apostis glowed like a forge; gradually it dimmed and went out, and our ship resumed a more conventional position, though the wind still screamed in the rigging and the clouds scudded under us like flecks of foam in a mill race."
• "[…]or even, daring, spent the night up some pole in a lineman's tent like caterpillars, swung among a web of telephone wires, living in the very copper rigging and secular miracle of communication, untroubled by the dumb voltages flickering their miles, the night long, in the thousands of unheard messages."