[f. FORE- pref. + YARD2.] 1. Naut. ‘The lowest yard on the fore-mast’ (W. C. Russell).

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1627.  Capt. Smith, Seaman’s Gram., iii. 16. The fore Yard [must be] 19 yards long, and 15 inches diameter or thick.

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1745.  P. Thomas, Jrnl. Anson’s Voy., 145. The Gloucester’s Fore-cap splitting, her Fore-top-mast broke short, and in its Fall, meeting with the Fore-yard broke it in the Slings.

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1844.  W. H. Maxwell, Sports & Adv. Scot., ix. (1855), 91, note. At sea, when the bell is struck at noon, the sun is said to be ‘over the fore-yard’; and then all good men and true—barring teetotallers—indulge in a glass of grog, if it be their pleasure.

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1854.  H. Miller, Sch. & Schm. (1858), 6. After toiling on the foreyard in a violent night-squall.

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  † 2.  pl. = ANTENNÆ. Obs.

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1658.  Rowland, Moufet’s Theat. Ins., 937. The fore-yards [of a flie] are thin, black and short.

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