Other forms: bilges
The bilge is the lowest inside part of a hull, where water collects. Pump the bilge, bilge water, down in the bilges.
Every boat takes some water and the bilge is where it gathers, which is why a bilge pump is a safety item rather than a convenience. Bilge water stinks because it mixes with oil and rot. As slang, bilge means nonsense.
1nounbilgeThe lowest inside part of a hull, where water collects.
“Water had collected in the bilge, so the sailors had to pump it out.”
bilge is a part of a boat.
BILGe → where you BAIL the water out
The bottom of the inside of the boat, where all the water ends up, and somebody has to bail it out with a bucket every morning.
hooks ontobail
Probably a variant of bulge, from the swelling curve of a hull's bottom.
Likely derived from bulge. Compare Middle English bulgen (“to ground or scuttle a ship”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA