BOWLING, or BOW-LINE, in a ship, a rope made fast to the leech or middle part of the outside of the sail: it is fastened by two, three, or four ropes, like a crow's foot,
foot, to as many parts of the sail; only the mizen bow-line is fastened to the lower end of the yard. This rope belongs to all sails, except the sprit-sail and sprit-top-sail. The use of the bow-line is to make the sails stand sharp or close, or by a wind.
Sharp the bow-line, is hale it taught, or pull it hard. Hale up the bow-line, that is, pull it harder forward on. Check or ease, or run up the bow-line, that is, let it be more slack.