Checking saved dictionary data and trusted language sources. This will stop automatically if a source does not respond.
/ˈəʊkəm/ · noun
Coarse fibres separated by hackling from flax or hemp when preparing the latter for spinning..
[W]ho should it be but Mr. Daniel, all muffled up, and his face as black as the chimney, and covered with dirt, pitch, and tarr, and powder, and muffled with dirty clouts, and his right eye stopped with okum. He is come last night at five o'clock from the fleete, with a comrade of his that hath endangered another eye.
It vvas reſolved hovvever to proceed on our Voyage, vvhich vve did for ten Days, in hopes by the Oakums ſvvelling the Leak might grovv leſs; but to our great Surpriſe, after very hard VVeather near Porto Bello, and not being able to reach it, it increaſed to double the Quantity.
[A]s it rained nearly all the time, awnings were put over the hatchways, and all hands sent down between the decks, where we were at work, day after day, picking oakum, until we got enough to caulk the ship all over, and to last the whole voyage.
[N]ow that I think of it, he's always wanting oakum to stuff into the toes of his boots.
On the 24th of November, the plaintiff wrote the following reply, addressing it to George Havelock:– "Yours containing order for oakums came duly to hand. As it will take three or four days before the white oakum arrives here, we cannot till after that time supply the same. All will be forwarded together. The price of white and brown oakum will be 30s. per cwt. Yours, &c., W. H. Douglas and Co."
Shingle Tiles make a Leak-Proof roof without the use of cements and spun oakums.
My eyesight began to fail, from the strain of picking oakum in my cell.
Earlier that morning he had gotten the oakum ready for the deck, soaking the hemp in pine tar.
Use oakum when its meaning, tone and grammar fit the full sentence. A synonym is not always a direct replacement.
Oakum means Coarse fibres separated by hackling from flax or hemp when preparing the latter for spinning..
Common synonyms include hards, tow.
The opposite depends on the specific sense.
[W]ho should it be but Mr. Daniel, all muffled up, and his face as black as the chimney, and covered with dirt, pitch, and tarr, and powder, and muffled with dirty clouts, and his right eye stopped with okum. He is come last night at five o'clock from the fleete, with a comrade of his that hath endangered another eye.
FreeDictionaryAPI.com / Wiktionary · Original source · CC BY-SA 4.0
Dictionary data is provided by FreeDictionaryAPI.com and sourced from Wiktionary under its stated license.