hull-down

English edit

hull-down (not comparable)

(nautical) Of a ship: so far distant that only the masts and sails are visible above the horizon.
- 1898 September, Joseph Conrad, “Youth: a Narrative”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXIV, number DCCCCXCV, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publication Co., page 319, column 2:
  In the morning a homeward-bound ship passed us hull down,—the first we had seen for months; […]
- 1960, J.E. Macdonnell, Escort Ship, Sydney: Horwitz Publications, published 1972, page 30:
  Shortly they would be hull-down.
(military) Of a tank: stopped with its hull protected by ground to the front, so that its occupants or weapons have a line of sight forward.