hawsehole

• hawse hole

hawse +‎ hole

hawsehole (plural hawseholes)

1. (nautical) The hole through which a ship's anchor rope is passed.
   • 1986, Jean Boudriot, The Seventy-four Gun Ship‎, page 59:

     The bolsters can be seen outboard of the hawseholes, and the way they are cut away to permit the passage of the anchor-cables.

   • 2002, David Sherman, Demontech, Book 1: Onslaught‎, page 21:

     Then he saw. a few feet aft of the hawsehole, a darker spot on the hull—someone had left a porthole open below the forecastle. in the hold that was the crews' quarters.

   • 2004, Nelson H. Lawry, Glen M. Williford, Leo K. Polaski, Portsmouth Harbor's Military and Naval Heritage, page 86:

     Its overlapping steel plates and the empty hawseholes, from which the anchors will soon be suspended, are visible.

2. (nautical) A hole in a ship through which a hawser is passed.

• (hole through which a hawser is passed): cathole

• through the hawsehole