Naut. Also 8–9 stive, 9 steve. [f. STEEVE v.1] (See quot. 1852.)

1

1794.  Rigging & Seamanship, I. 31. The stive of the bowsprit.

2

1809.  Naval Chron., XXI. 27. The bowsprit … has not so much stove [read steve] as is usual.

3

1846.  A. Young, Naut. Dict., 320. The Steeve is the angle which it makes with the horizon.

4

1852.  J. Fincham, Ship Building, IV. (ed. 3), 110. Stive, the angle upwards that any timber, &c., makes with the horizon, or its elevation above a horizontal line, as the stive of the cathead, bowsprit, &c.

5

1888.  W. Clark Russell, Death Ship, I. xi. 124. Look hard, and you’ll mark the steeve of her bowsprit.

6

1901.  Munsey’s Mag., XXIV. 461/1. A gradual diminution of the steve of the bowsprit.

7