Chiefly Naut. Also 8–9 fidd. [Of unknown origin; it is doubtful whether all the senses belong to the same word.]
1. A conical pin of hard wood, from 9 to 30 in. long, used to open the strands of a rope in splicing.
1615. E. S., Britain’s Buss, in Arb., Garner, III. 629. Fids or Hammers.
a. 1642. Sir W. Monson, Naval Tracts, III. (1704), 342/1. The Office of a Boatswain, Is to have the Charge of all the Cordage, Tackling, Sails, Fids and Marling Spikes, [etc.].
1769. Falconer, Dict. Marine (1789), Epissoir … a … splicing fid.
1779–80. Cook, Voy., II. 39. Shaped somewhat like a large fid or sugar-loaf.
2. A square bar of wood or iron, with a shoulder at one end, used to support the weight of the topmast and also the topgallant mast.
1644. Manwayring, Sea-mans Dict., s.v. The pin in the heele of the top-mast which beares it upon the ches-trees, is a fidd.
1794. Rigging & Seamanship, I. 29. Fids are made square.
1824. Ann. Reg., 271*. An improved fidd for the upper masts of ships.
1867. in Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk.
3. A plug of oakum for the vent of a gun.
1626. Capt. Smith, Accid. Yng. Seamen, 31. Their fids and leads to keepe dry the touch hole.
1721–1800. in Bailey.
1867. in Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk.
4. ? transf. A plug or quid of tobacco.
1793. Grose, Dict. Vulg. Tongue, Fid of Tobacco.
1860. in Bartlett, Dict. Amer.
1867. in Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk.
5. dial. A small but thick piece of anything.
1838. in Holloway, Provincialisms.
1851. Newland, The Erne, 71. It [a trout] was already cut into fids of five or six inches in length, which were spread out on arbutus skewers, and fixed upright on square pieces of turf.
1883. Hampsh. Gloss., Fid, sb. a piece. Ex. ‘A fid of cheese.’
6. dial. See quot. [Perh. a different word; cf. FAD, FAWD, FEALD in same sense.]
1863. Morton, Cycl. Agric. (E.D.S.), Fid (Kent), a thatcner’s handful of straw.
7. ‘A wooden or metal bar or pin, used to support or steady anything’ (Webster).
1851. J. S. Springer, Joys and Perils of Lumbering, in Harper’s Mag., III. 519/1. After having knocked out the ‘fid,’ which united the chain that bound the load, the log rolled suddenly upon him. Thus, without a moment’s warning, he ceased in the same instant to work and live.
1857. Colquhoun, Oarsman’s Guide, 31. A fid is a wedge passed through a hole to secure anything.
8. attrib., as fid-hammer, -hole.
1644. Manwayring, Sea-mans Dict., Fidd-hammer is a Fidd made sharpe at one end, to splise a roape, and a Hammer at the other end.
1721–1800. Bailey, Fidd-hammer.
1789. Trans. Soc. Encourag. Arts, VII. 217. A top-mast inverted: the fid-hole to ship the tiller in.
1869. Sir E. J. Reed, Shipbuild., xvi. 315. Thus steel yards have snapped in the truss, topmasts split in the fid-hole, plates cracked on sharp curves, and saving the possibility of bad material, inherent to all human production, the quality of the steel, may for all that, have originally been unimpeachable.
