mast
pronunciation
How to pronounce mast in British English:
UK [mɑ:st]
How to pronounce mast in American English:
US [mæst]
-
- Noun:
- a vertical spar for supporting sails
- nuts of forest trees (as beechnuts and acorns) accumulated on the ground; used especially as food for swine
- nuts of forest trees used as feed for swine
- any sturdy upright pole
Word Origin
- mast (n.1)
- "long pole on a ship to support the sail," Old English mæst, from Proto-Germanic *mastaz (cognates: Old Norse mastr, Middle Dutch maste, Dutch, Danish mast, German Mast), from PIE *mazdo- "a pole, rod" (cognates: Latin malus "mast," Old Irish matan "club," Irish maide "a stick," Old Church Slavonic mostu "bridge"). The single mast of an old ship was the boundary between quarters of officers and crew, hence before the mast in the title of Dana's book, etc.
- mast (n.2)
- "fallen nuts; food for swine," Old English mæst, from Proto-Germanic *masto (cognates: Dutch, Old High German, German mast "mast;" Old English verb mæsten "to fatten, feed"), perhaps from PIE *mad-sta-, from root *mad- "moist, wet," also used of various qualities of food (cognates: Sanskrit madati "it bubbles, gladdens," medah "fat, marrow;" Latin madere "be sodden, be drunk;" Middle Persian mast "drunk;" Old English mete "food," Old High German muos "meal, mushlike food," Gothic mats "food").
Example
- 1. Eg. the mast was bent during the storm .
- 2. No stormy blast to rattle the mast , a sober wind and true .
- 3. It also takes information from sensors which measure how the boat is behaving on the water , as well as standard marine instruments , such as a wind wand on the mast that measures wind speed and direction .
- 4. The soviet union was already crumbling , and its end would come 11 months later , when the hammer and sickle was lowered from the kremlin mast for the last time , on december 25 .
- 5. Rubbish , say the people behind the rival 63-storey bishopsgate tower . Because they are a " mast " , and thus not part of the building at all , the european title belongs to their own 307.25 metre " helter-skelter " .