berth

Chiefly in wide berth: a sufficient space in the water for a ship or other vessel to lie at anchor or manoeuvre without getting in the way of other vessels, or colliding into rocks or the shore.

Tho' vve vvere again got near our harbour by three in the afternoon, yet it ſeemed to require a full hour or more, before vve could come to our former place of anchoring, or birth, as the captain called it.

"[…] She lays close to the Endymion, between her and the Cleopatra, just to the eastward of the sheer hulk." / "Ha!" cried William, "that's just where I should have put her myself. It's the best birth at Spithead.[…]"

Chiefly in wide berth: a sufficient space in the water for a ship or other vessel to lie at anchor or manoeuvre without getting in the way of other vessels, or colliding into rocks or the shore.

And vvhen he had ſhevvn me their birth (as he called it) I vvas filled vvith aſtoniſhment and horror.—VVe deſcended by divers ladders to a ſpace as dark as a dungeon, vvhich I underſtood vvas immerſed ſeveral feet under vvater, being immediately above the hold: I had no ſooner approached this diſmal gulph, than my noſe vvas ſaluted vvith an intolerable ſtench of putrified cheeſe, and rancid butter, […]

But not only was this the first day that Jack may be said to have appeared in the service, but it was the first day in which he had entered the midshipman's berth, and was made acquainted with his messmates.

Chiefly in wide berth: a sufficient space in the water for a ship or other vessel to lie at anchor or manoeuvre without getting in the way of other vessels, or colliding into rocks or the shore.

Passengers their births are clapt in, / Some to grumble, some to spew. / 'Hey day! call you that a cabin? / Why 'tis hardly three feet square; / Not enough to stow Queen Mab in— / Who the deuce can harbour there?'

Just at this moment, in crossing the forecastle, one of the men saw a light below, and looking down the scuttle, saw the watch all out of their berths, and afoul of one poor fellow, dragging him out of his berth, and shaking him, to wake him out of a nightmare.

Chiefly in wide berth: a sufficient space in the water for a ship or other vessel to lie at anchor or manoeuvre without getting in the way of other vessels, or colliding into rocks or the shore.

He was now a temperate man for life, and capable of filling any berth in a ship, and many a high station there is on shore which is held by a meaner man.

An assigned place for a person in (chiefly historical) a horse-drawn coach or other means of transportation, or (military) in a barracks.

[W]ith worldly wisdom, the first comer hastens to secure the best birth in the coach for himself, and to make the most convenient arrangement for his baggage before the arrival of his competitor.

To bring (a ship or other vessel) into a berth (noun etymology 1 sense 1.1); also, to provide a berth for (a vessel).

"The Henery," being let loose to drive up the river of herself, did run up as high as the bridge, and broke down some of the rails of the bridge, and so back again with the tide, and up again, and then berthed himself so well as no pilot could ever have done better; […]

Further west, in Pembrokeshire, the Esso Petroleum Co. refinery at Milford Haven, opened last November, is designed to berth the world's largest tankers and to process, initially, 4,500,000 tons of crude oil a year.

To bring (a ship or other vessel) into a berth (noun etymology 1 sense 1.1); also, to provide a berth for (a vessel).

To assign (someone) a berth (noun etymology 1 sense 1.3 or etymology 1 sense 2.2) or place to sleep on a vessel, a train, etc.

To provide (someone) with a berth (noun etymology 1 sense 3.1) or appointment, job, or position.

Of a vessel: to move into a berth.

Chiefly in shipbuilding: to construct (a ship or part of it) using wooden boards or planks; to board, to plank.

VVhen you haue berthed or brought her [the ship] vp to the planks, vvhich are thoſe thicke timbers vvhich goeth fore and aft on each ſide, vvhereon doth lie the beames of the firſt Orlop, vvhich is the firſt floore to ſupport the plankes doth couer the Hovvle, thoſe are great croſſe timbers, that keepes the ſhip ſides aſunder, the maine beame is euer next the maine maſt, […]