noun Nautical.
- a stout bar of wood or metal placed across a lower spar so as to support a higher one.
- a stout bar used to hold a running bowsprit in its extended position.
- a wooden or metal pin for parting strands of a rope.
- a bar or pin used as a key or toggle.
- a combining form meaning “divided,” “lobed,” occurring in adjectives borrowed from Latin (bifid); on this model, used in the formation of compound words (pinnatifid).
noun nautical
- a spike for separating strands of rope in splicing
- a wooden or metal bar for supporting the heel of a topmast
adj combining form
- divided into parts or lobesbifid; pinnatifid
word-forming element meaning “split, divided into parts,” from Latin -fidus, related to findere “to split” (see fissure).