rogue's yarn
A thread of red, blue or gold worsted, worked into the ropes manufactured in the…A thread of red, blue or gold worsted, worked into the ropes manufactured in the government Royal dockyards, to identify them if stolen. Red for Pompey (Portsmouth), Blue for Guz (Plymouth), Gold for Chatham. Also a blue thread worked into canvas for the same purpose.
Meaning
1 senses(historical, slang)A thread of red, blue or gold worsted, worked into the ropes manufactured in the government Royal dockyards, to identify them if stolen. Red for Pompey (Portsmouth), Blue for Guz (Plymouth), Gold for Chatham. Also a blue thread worked into canvas for the same purpose.
Forms
plural: rogue's yarns| Singular | rogue's yarn |
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| Plural | rogue's yarns |
regular
See also
neighbours in the dictionaryDictionary text adapted from Wiktionary (Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Open English WordNet / Princeton WordNet (CC BY 4.0, WordNet License); shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Example sentences and recordings are credited where they appear.