Emily Dickinson Lexicon

BILGE, n. [A different orthography of bulge, and belly, a protuberance.]

1. The protuberant part of a cask, which is usually in the middle.
2. 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.