Slipway

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A type of ramp that allows for the launching and retrieval of boats, serving as a slope between land and water for easier vessel handling
2. An engineered incline specifically designed to assist in moving ships and boats into and out of water environments
3. A gently sloping structure that extends into a body of water to facilitate the movement of boats from land into the water

Etymology: A slipway is a compound of two plain English words, "slip" and "way," and its history is largely the history of those two parts. "Slip" comes from a Proto-West Germanic root, *slippjan, which passed through Middle Low German "slippen" and reached Middle English as "slippen," meaning to slide or glide. The "way" half descends from Old English "weg," a path or road, and is related to the old Germanic word for a route through land, so the compound originally pictured a sliding path. The sense of a sloped ramp leading into the water was a practical, narrow meaning that grew up around shipbuilding and launching. A slipway let a vessel slide down into the sea, and later the same structure served for hauling a boat back out for repair, which is why the word covers both launching and retrieval today.

Synonyms: ramp, launching ramp