breast hook (bresthuk)

One of the thick pieces of timber shaped in the form of knees and placed directly acro the stem of a ship, to strengthen the fore part and unite the bows on each side. See cut under stem. Her huge bows rose up, showing the bright copper, and her stem and breast - hooks dripping, like old Neptune's locks, with the brine. R. H. Dana , Jr. , Before the Mast, p. 10. breasting (bres'ting), n. [ 2. The bed against which the wheel of a rag engine works.-3. A method of deer-hunting in which several horsemen ride abreast through the cover and shoot from the saddle. Breasting is employed where the deer make their home in very high gra , such as is to be found on some of the prairies of the South-west. G. B. Grinnell, Gun and Rod, p. 152.