kedge

noun

1. A small anchor used for warping a vessel.

   “...and throw them into the boat, which, as there are no wharves, we usually kept anchored by a small kedge, or keelek, just outside of the surf.”

   “The chaps who had gone off in the cutter had been equally spry with their job, bending on a stout hemp hawser through the ring of the kedge anchor, which they dropped some half a cable's length from the brig, bringing back the other end aboard, where it was put round the capstan on the forecastle.”

2. (Yorkshire)A glutton.

verb

1. (transitive)To warp (a vessel) by carrying out a kedge in a boat, dropping it overboard, and hauling the vessel up to it.
2. (intransitive)To move with the help of a kedge, as described above.

   “[…] there was a stretch of twelve miles of channel running in a north-easterly direction which the ship could not possibly negotiate under sail unless a change of wind should occur — of which there seemed to be absolutely no prospect. The only alternative, therefore, would be to kedge those twelve miles; truly a most formidable undertaking for four persons — one of them being a girl — to attempt.”

   “By noon the men had loaded the cargo & Prophetess was kedging out of the bay against unfavourable winds.”