shipshape
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈʃɪpʃeɪp/
ipa: /ˈʃɪpˌʃeɪp/
Forms: form: more shipshape
form: most shipshape
form: ship-shape
Etymology: From ship + shapen (“shaped; wrought with a definite shape”), later shortened to shape. The word is of nautical origin, based on the obligation of a sailor to keep his or her quarters arranged neatly and securely due to the limited space typically allotted to service members aboard ship, and against turbulence at sea.
Senses: examples: text: SHIP-shape, in a seaman-like manner; as "That mast is not rigged ship-shape;" "Put her about ship-shape," &c.
ref: [1801, J. J. Moore, “SHIP-shape”, in The British Mariner’s Vocabulary, […], London: […] T. Hurst [et al.], →OCLC:
text: [I]t would have been more ship-shape to lower the bight of a rope, or a running bow-line, below me, than to seize an old sea-man by his head-lanyard; [...]
ref: 1823, [James Fenimore Cooper], chapter V, in The Pioneers, or The Sources of the Susquehanna; […], volume II, New York, N.Y.: Charles Wiley; […], →OCLC, page 83:
text: When we set out on the jolly voyage of life, what a brave fleet there is around us, as stretching our fresh canvas to the breeze, all "shipshape and Bristol fashion," pennons flying, music playing, cheering each other as we pass, we are rather amused than alarmed when some awkward comrade goes right ashore for want of pilotage!
ref: 1827, [Walter Scott], chapter VII, in Chronicles of the Canongate; […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] [Ballantyne and Co.] for Cadell and Co.; London: Simpkin and Marshall, →OCLC, page 111:
text: [G]lad to see you, gentlemen—steerage not quite shipshape at present—overhauling ship, you see; but when we once get under way, get things shipshape, you know.
ref: 1835 July, Jack Block, “The Cruise of the Mohawk”, in The American Monthly Magazine, volume V, number V, New York, N.Y.: D. K. Minor, and T. & C. Wood, →OCLC, page 421:
text: Annie, my girl, cheer up, be comforted, / Look to the babes, and till I come again, / Keep everything shipshape, for I must go.
ref: 1864, Alfred Tennyson, “Enoch Arden”, in Enoch Arden, &c., London: Edward Moxon & Co., […], →OCLC, page 13:
text: Well, Captain Smollett, what have you to say? All well, I hope; all shipshape and seaworthy?
ref: 1881–1882, Robert Louis Stevenson, “Powder and Arms”, in Treasure Island, London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 14 November 1883, →OCLC, part II (The Sea Cook), page 70:
text: ― When are you going out fishing again? / ― Oh, in about six weeks, when we're shipshape aloft.
ref: 1937 May 11, John Lee Mahin, Marc Connelly, Dale Van Every, 1:44:00 from the start, in Captains Courageous, [Hollywood, Calif.]: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, →OCLC:
text: Having made sure everything is shipshape, the colonel goes back to the controls and starts to bring the plane down.
ref: 1950 July, “Night Flight”, in Jim Douglas, editor, Boeing Magazine, volume XX, number 7, Seattle, Wash.: Public Relations Division, Boeing Airplane Company, →OCLC, page 14, column 3:
text: [Y]ou got the downhaul to keep him in place real snug like. Otherwise it just ain't shipshape. Hell, everybody knows that.
ref: 1989 August 17, Tom Clancy, Clear and Present Danger, premium tie-in edition, New York, N.Y.: Berkley Books, published November 2018, →ISBN, page 141:
text: Dr. Marks said I'm shipshape. Those were his exact words. Or maybe he said tip-top. It was something alliterative.
ref: 2005 July 1, Kelly Link, “Stone Animals”, in Magic for Beginners: Stories, trade paperback edition, New York, N.Y.: Random House, published 2014, →ISBN, page 114:
synonyms: word: shipshape and Bristol fashion
word: tight
word: in order
word: neat
word: neat and tidy
word: neat as a new pin
word: neat as a pin
word: nice as ninepence
word: orderly
word: prest
word: regular
word: ruly
word: shipshape
word: tidy
word: tight
word: tiptop
word: tosh
word: trig
word: trim
word: well-kept
antonyms: word: orderly
glosses: Meticulously neat and tidy.
Related terms: shipshape and Bristol fashion