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

• come up through the hawsehole (serve time as a seaman before being promoted)