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ACORN

Volume 1 · 62 words · 1778 Edition

the fruit of the oak-tree. See Quercus.

(in sea-language,) a little ornamental piece of wood, fashioned like a cone, and fixed on the uppermost point of the spindle, above the vane, on the masthead. It is used to keep the vane from being blown off from the spindle in a whirlwind, or when the ship leans much to one side under sail.