A familiar phrase for masts.
1) Household furniture. 2) Pops or pistols. Stow your sticks; hide your pistols. CANT. See pops. ...
Dictionary of The Vulgar Tongue by Francis Grose
Thin legs, compared to sticks with which boys play at cat. See trap sticks. ...
Thin legs, gambs: from the sticks with which boys play at trap-ball. ...
An apostrophe often made when the masts complain in a fresh squall, or are over-pressed, and it is u...
The Sailor's Word-Book