apeak

English

Alternative forms

• apeek

Etymology

From French à pic (“at its summit; vertically”), compare with Italian a picco.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /əˈpiːk/

Adverb

apeak (not comparable)

1. (nautical, of an anchor) In a vertical line, the cable having been sufficiently hove in to bring the ship over it.
   • a 1796, Charles Dibdin, "Nautical Philosophy":

     Thus the good we should cherish, the bad never seek, / For death will too soon bring each anchor apeak.

   • 1808–10, William Hickey, Memoirs of a Georgian Rake, Folio Society 1995, p. 163:

     I found the New Shoreham with her anchor apeak and, within a quarter of an hour after I reached her, running seven knots an hour, right before the wind.

Anagrams

• akepa