[f. BOB (uncertain in what sense) + STAY sb.] ‘A rope used to confine the bowsprit of a ship downward to the stem…. [Its use] is to draw down the bowsprit and keep it steady; and to counteract the force of the stays of the fore-mast, which draw it upwards.’ Falconer, Dict. Marine (1769).
1758. Chron., in Ann. Reg., 78/1. They … passed the end of the mizen top sail sheet through the enemy’s bobstay.
1840. R. H. Dana, Bef. Mast, xxx. 111. New and strong bobstays [were] fitted in the place of the chain ones.
1875. ‘Stonehenge,’ Brit. Sports, II. VIII. i. § 5. Heave down the bobstay, and then haul the topmast forward again.
b. attrib., as in bobstay-collar, -hole, -plate.
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., Bobstay-collars … are almost entirely superseded by iron bands. Ibid., Bobstay-holes, those cut through the fore-part of the knee of the head, between the cheeks, for the admission of the bobstay; they are not much used now, as chain bobstays are almost universal, which are secured to plates by shackles.
