rigging

Dress; tackle; especially (nautical), the ropes, chains, etc., that support the masts and spars of a sailing vessel, and serve as purchases for adjusting the sails, etc.

Noun

  1. Dress; tackle; especially (nautical), the ropes, chains, etc., that support the masts and spars of a sailing vessel, and serve as purchases for adjusting the sails, etc.
    • The moon was full and shone down on us through the masts and rigging of an old fishing wreck, which had been grounded just off the beach where we were sitting. - 1941 March 12, Charles A. Lindbergh, The Wartime Journals...
    • For a time the apostis glowed like a forge; gradually it dimmed and went out, and our ship resumed a more conventional position, though the wind still screamed in the rigging and the clouds scudded under us like flecks...
  2. Similar supporting material used for construction work, or in film, theater, etc.
    • […]or even, daring, spent the night up some pole in a lineman's tent like caterpillars, swung among a web of telephone wires, living in the very copper rigging and secular miracle of communication, untroubled by the...
  3. The shiplike mechanical components and weaponry attached to a shipgirl.
    • Max Factory presents a figma of Nagato Kai-II from "Kantai Collection -KanColle-"! Her rigging has been carefully recreated in figma form, featuring loads of articulation to create perfect poses! - 2021 April 21,...
  4. A system of rods, levers etc. that operate a brake, notably on rail vehicles.
    • A hand parking brake operated from the adjacent cab is connected by rigging to the inner pair of wheels. - 1960 April 5, “Type "3" Diesel-Electric Locomotives for the Southern Region”, in Railway Magazine, page 239:

Origin

From Middle English riggyng, ryggyng, riggynge, equivalent to rig + -ing.

Forms

riggings

Hyponyms

running rigging standing rigging

Derived

bid rigging election-rigging jury rigging rigging monkey

Verb

  1. present participle and gerund of rig

Origin

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.