Naut. [? connected with CABLE.] (pl.) ‘Spun rope-yarn lines, for worming a cable, seizing, winding tacks, and the like’ (Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk.).
1626. Capt. Smith, Accid. Yng. Sea-men, 16. They [cables] serue … for rope yarne, caburne, sinnit, an[d] okum. Ibid. (1627), Seaman’s Gram., v. 25. Caburne is a small line made of spun yarne to make a bend of two Cables, or to sease the Tackels, or the like.
1678. in Phillips; also in mod. Dicts.
