Word of the Day

: April 8, 2017

alow

adverb uh-LOH

What It Means

: below

alow in Context

"She had studding-sails out alow and aloft, with a light but steady breeze, and her captain said he could not get more than four knots out of her and thought he should have a long passage." — Richard Henry Dana, Two Years Before the Mast, 1840

"Mr. Blunt remained seated, assessed them alow and aloft and came to settle upon James, looking him right in the eye." — James Spurr, One Sloop and Slow Match, 2008

Did You Know?

In nautical use, alow means "in or to a lower part of the vessel," indicating the deck or the area of the rigging closest to the deck, or below-deck as opposed to above-deck. The opposite of alow in this sense is aloft, used to indicate a higher part of the vessel especially around the mastheads or the higher rigging. Yet, while we are still likely to encounter aloft, in both nautical and non-nautical use, alow has become something of a rarity. When encountered, it is usually found in the combination "alow and aloft." This phrase literally refers to the upper and lower parts of a ship or its rigging, but it can also be used, as in our second example sentence, to mean "completely" or "thoroughly."