Also 7–8 bildge, billage. [Prob. a corruption of BULGE, ad. OF. boulge = mod.F. bouge, shown not only by the occurrence of BULGE and BULCH as synonyms of BILGE, but also by the fact that bouge in F. still means ‘bilge’ both with reference to a cask and to a ship. Billage must be a further corruption, due to the rarity of the ending -lge in Eng.; this form seems in later times to be preferred where the word denotes a measure, from form-association with tonnage, stowage, and other abstracts in -age.]
1. The bottom of a ship’s hull, or that part on either side of the keel which has more a horizontal than a perpendicular direction, and upon which the ship would rest if aground; also the lowest internal part of the hull.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, V. iv. 78. The mychty kervell schudderit … Doun swakkand fludis ondir hir braid bilge of aik.
1692. in Capt. Smith’s Seaman’s Gram., I. xvi. 75. The Bilge, the breadth of the place the Ship rests on when she is a ground.
1696. Phillips, Billage of a Ship is the breadth of the Floor when she lies aground; and billage-water is that which cannot come to the pump.
1786. Cowper, Odyss., XV. 579. She pitched headlong into the bilge Like a sea coot.
1866. Daily Tel., 7 Nov., 3/4. Fortunately, we were only blown over on our other bilge, and remained fast.
b. The foulness that collects in the bilge.
1829. Southey, O. Newman, iii. To breathe again the air With taint of bilge and cordage undefiled.
1856. Emerson, Eng. Traits, ii. 35. Nobody likes to be … suffocated with bilge, mephitis, and stewing oil.
2. The ‘belly’ of a cask or other vessel of similar shape; cf. BELLY 10, 11.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, II. i. 11. Of chost men … thai tuik Ane greit numir, and hid in bilgis derne Within that best.
1797. Nelson, in Nicolas, Disp., VII. 143. The great weight of stores laid on the casks … has pressed the bilges.
3. Comb. and Attrib., as bilge-block, -board, -coad, -keelson, -plank; bilge-fever (see quot.); bilge-free a. (of a cask), stowed so that the bilge does not come in contact with the floor; bilge-piece = BILGE-KEEL; bilge-pump, a pump to draw off the bilge-water; bilge-stringer, a shelf or line of beams running round the bilge; bilge-ways (see quot.). Also BILGE-KEEL, -WATER.
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., *Bilge-fever, the illness occasioned by a foul hold.
1869. Sir E. Reed, Ship-build., ii. 47. The iron-clad frigates of our Navy … have numerous … *bilge-keelsons.
1880. Times, 25 Dec., 7/5. The vessel rolled ‘deeper’ than before the removal of the *bilge-pieces, the increase of ballast, [etc.].
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., *Bilge-planks, certain thick strengthenings on the inner and outer lines of the bilge.
1866. G. Macdonald, Ann. Q. Neighb., xi. (1878), 226. It’s better … to keep a look-out on the *bilge-pump.
1869. Sir E. Reed, Ship-build., i. 10. The butts of the angle-irons forming the fore and aft *bilge-stringers, were not sufficiently connected.
1769. Falconer, Dict. Marine (1789), H iij b. The *bilge-ways or cradles, placed under the bottom, to conduct the ship … into the water whilst lanching.
