/ · 1894 Brewer’s · O · Oakum
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Untwisted rope; used for caulking the seams (i.e. spaces between the planks) of a ship. It is forced in by chisel and mallet.
To pick oakum. To make oakum by untwisting old ropes. A common employment in prisons and workhouses.
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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.
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