Naut. Also 7 steve, 8 steave, stive, 9 stave. [Of obscure origin.
Usually explained as f. STEEVE a., on the ground that a tilted bowsprit is ‘steeve’ or incapable of motion; but this seems unlikely. A connection with OF. estive ploughtail (:—L. stīva) would not be improbable with regard to the sense.]
intr. Of a bowsprit, etc.: To incline upwards at an angle instead of lying horizontally. Also trans. to set (a bowsprit) at a certain upward inclination.
1644. Manwayring, Seamans Dict., 102. To Steve or Steving. Wee say the bold-sprit, or beake-head Steves, when it stands too upright, and not straight foreward enough.
1711. W. Sutherland, Shipbuild. Assist., 74. Cat-heads … To steave in every Foot … 2 inches. Ibid., 164. Steaving; when a Part rises from a horizontal Position, as in the Cathead, Bowsprit, and Knee of the Head.
1794. Act 34 Geo. III., c. 50 § 7. The said Bowsprit to be steaved or elevated at least two Inches in every Foot from the straight Line of the Range of the Deck.
1794. Rigging & Seamanship, I. 31. Set off what the bowsprit stives.
1839. Marryat, Phant. Ship, viii. The bowsprit staved very much, and was to appearance almost as a fourth mast.
1897. Kipling, Captains Courageous, iii. That yaller, dirty packet with her bowsprit steeved that way, she’s the Hope of Prague.
transf. 1791. Smeaton, Edystone L., § 34. The rock stives from E. to W. 10 feet 11 inches in 24 feet.
Hence Steeving vbl. sb. and ppl. a.
1664. E. Bushnell, Compl. Ship-wright, iii. 8. Then for the steeving of him, and rounding the Knee, a regard must be had to the lying of the Boltspreet.
1769. Falconer, Dict. Marine (1780), Steeving, the elevation of a ship’s bowsprit above the stem, or the angle which it makes with the horizon.
1791. Smeaton, Edystone L., § 6. The sloping (or stiving of the rocks as it is technically called).
c. 1850. Rudim. Navig. (Weale), 153. Stiving. The elevation of a ship’s cat-head or bowsprit; or the angle which either makes with the horizon.
1893. F. M. Crawford, Children of King, I. 6. The martinganes flatten in their jibs along their high steeving bowsprits and jib-booms.
