Naut. [Derivation unknown; possibly f. BOLE sb.1 + -ARD.] A wooden or iron post, on a ship, a whale-boat, or a quay, for securing ropes to. Also attrib., as in bollard-head, -timber (see quot.).
1844. A. Key, Recov. Gorgon (1847), 67. The threefold block taken close forward to a bollard on the forecastle.
1863. Times, 19 March, 14/2. Like the Warrior she will have on each quarter strong iron towing bollards.
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., 115. Bollard, a thick piece of wood on the head of a whale-boat, round which the harpooner gives the line a turn, in order to veer it steadily, and check the animal’s velocity.
1880. T. Hardy, Trump. Major, in Gd. Words, Oct., 661. Standing by a bollard a little farther up the quay.
attrib. c. 1850. Rudim. Navig. (Weale), 127. Knight-heads, or Bollard-Timbers, large oak timbers fayed and bolted to each side of the stem, the heads of which run up sufficiently above the head of the stem to support the bowsprit.
1869. Sir E. Reed, Shipbuild., xv. 291. In iron ships bollard heads and towing bollards are frequently of cast iron.
