Primary
''bilge'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20250825221536-00-⌔
bilge - Wiktionary, the free dictionary
English
Noun
bilge (countable and uncountable, plural bilges)
- (nautical) The rounded portion of a ship’s hull, forming a transition between the bottom and the sides.
- (nautical) The lowest inner part of a ship’s hull, where water accumulates.
- ✤ […] water deluged into the cockpit and Niagaraed into the bilge. Only constant use of the pump kept the floorboards from going adrift.1
- (uncountable) The water accumulated in the bilge; bilge water.
- (slang, uncountable) Stupid talk or writing; nonsense.
- ✤ *talk bilge *
- ✤ *complete bilge *
- ✤ “The whole thing is the most absolute bilge and a disgrace to our legislature.”2
- ✤ That they can, with a straight face, praise it as good scholarship calls into question whether they can any longer recognize even passable scholarship. More likely, however, they know bilge when they see it—but laud this particular bilge nonetheless because it furthers a common partisan interest.3
- The bulging part of a barrel or cask.
Verb
bilge (third-person singular simple present bilges, present participle bilging, simple past and past participle bilged)
- (nautical, intransitive) To spring a leak in the bilge.
- (intransitive) To bulge or swell.
- (nautical, transitive) To break open the bilge(s) of.
Etymology
Likely derived from bulge. Compare Middle English bulgen (“to ground or scuttle a ship”).
Pronunciation
- IPA: /bɪld͡ʒ/
- Audio (US): 🔊
Printed 2026-06-28.
(echo:: @ ⌗)
Link to original Footnotes
1943, MotorBoating, volume 71, number 1, page 134: ↩
1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “In which the Notorious Criminal Gets what the British Law Considers to be His Deserts”, in The Land of Mist (eBook no. 0601351h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, published April 2019: ↩
2026, Michael Anton, “Fury Road”, in The Claremont Review of Books , The Claremont Institute, →ISSN, →OCLC: ↩
Secondary
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