Definition of "bobstay" [bob•stay]

• Nautical A rope or chain used to steady the bowsprit of a ship. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "The Kanaka caught the bobstay, climbed over the bow, and crawled aft."
• "I heard the wind sighing in the rigging of my boat, I heard the halyards napping on the mast, and I wondered if the mooring chains were chafing at the bobstay in the running tide."
• "Our bobstay snapped like sealing-wax, our mainsail rent like ribbon, our foresail flew away, and she would not answer her helm, and we remained in the trough of the waves, which rose awfully high."