Emily Dickinson Lexicon
Definition for BILGE
BILGE, n. [A different orthography of bulge, and belly, a protuberance.]
- The protuberant part of a cask, which is usually in the middle.
- The breadth of a ship's bottom, or that part of her floor which approaches to a horizontal direction, on which she would rest if aground. Hence when this pert of a ship is fractured, she is said to be bilged. – Encyc. Mar. Dict.
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