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Dictionary

mast

Pronunciation: (mast, mäst), [key]
—n.
1. Naut.
a. a spar or structure rising above the hull and upper portions of a ship or boat to hold sails, spars, rigging, booms, signals, etc., at some point on the fore-and-aft line, as a foremast or mainmast.
b. any of a number of individual spars composing such a structure, as a topmast supported on trestletrees at the head of a lower mast.
c. any of various portions of a single spar that are beside particular sails, as a top-gallant mast and royal mast formed as a single spar.
2. Also called pillar. the upright support of a jib crane.
3. any upright pole, as a support for an aerial, a post in certain cranes, etc.
4. before the mast, Naut.as an unlicensed sailor: He served several years before the mast.

—v.t.
to provide with a mast or masts.