bilboes Quick reference
The Oxford Companion to Ships and the Sea (2 ed.)
... , long bars or bolts, with a padlock on the end, on which iron shackles could slide. They were used on board ship to confine the legs of prisoners in a similar manner to putting someone in the stocks. It was a punishment usually known on board as putting a man in irons and continued in use, particularly in American sailing ships, until the latter half of the 19th century. There are examples of bilboes in the Tower of London, taken out of ships of the Spanish Armada . Thus Shakespeare's Hamlet, musing on a forthcoming fight: That would not let me...
bilboes
Bilboe Reference library
Concise Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain
... 1881: 14; Staffs. English: of uncertain origin; apparently from Early Modern English bilbo , a type of fine sword, itself from Bilbo(a) , the former English rendering of Bilbao in the Basque...
Bilboe Reference library
The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland
...(Norwich, Norfolk); Peter Bilboe , 1742 in IGI (Westminster, Middx); Herbert Bilboe , 1888 in IGI (Kidderminster, Worcs). Bilboe, 1881 frequency. © Archer...
garters
irons
shackle
Bilbow Reference library
Concise Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain
...1881: 29; Middx. English: see Bilboe...
‘garters’ Quick reference
The Oxford Companion to Ships and the Sea (2 ed.)
..., seaman's slang for the bilboes , or irons , which were used to secure men under punishment by leg-irons shackled to a long...
Bilbo Reference library
Dictionary of American Family Names (2 ed.)
... US frequency (2010): 1478 1 Altered form of French Bilbaud , itself a shortened form of Billebaud : nickname from a compound of bille ‘(billiard-)ball’, in a transferred sense also ‘testicle’, and baud ‘bold’. 2 In some cases possibly also English: variant of Bilboe , a Staffordshire surname, apparently a nickname from early modern English bilbo , which denoted a type of fine sword, derived from an Anglicized form of the name of the Spanish city and port of Bilbao. This surname is rare in...
irons Quick reference
The Oxford Companion to Ships and the Sea (2 ed.)
...water so that it will not pay off again. It is in the process of tacking , which entails a vessel coming up head to wind and bringing the wind on the other side, that the most frequent cause of a ship being in irons occurs. 2 A man was in irons when he was shackled to bilboes as a punishment. In the US Navy a man was in double irons when he was both shackled and...
shackle Quick reference
The Oxford Companion to Ships and the Sea (2 ed.)
... 1949 a shackle of cable supplied to the Royal Navy was 12.5 fathoms (75 ft/22.8 m) long, but was later made in lengths of 15 (90 ft/27.4 m) and 7.5 fathoms (45 ft/13.7 m), called ‘shackles of cable’ and ‘half-shackles of cable’. 3 When used in the plural it is a term for bilboes . It can also be used as a verb: two chains can be shackled together and a person is said to be shackled when put in irons....
bilbo / ~es n Reference library
The Oxford Dictionary of Original Shakespearean Pronunciation
...bilbo / ~es n ˈbɪlbo: / -z sp bilbo 1 , bilboe 1 / bilboes 1 ...
Bilbow Reference library
The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland
...• Current frequencies: GB 32, Ireland 0 • GB frequency 1881: 29 • Main GB location 1881: Middx English : see Bilboe . Bilbow, 1881 frequency. © Archer...
Bilbo Reference library
The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland
...• Current frequencies: GB 16, Ireland 0 • GB frequency 1881: 12 • Main GB location 1881: Middx English : see Bilboe . Further information: This name is rare in Britain but is thriving in the USA. Bilbo, 1881 frequency. © Archer...
