sealing vbl n
1 1858 [LOWELL] i, 79 ''Is, sir, it may be, in a manner; but not for s'ilun on those waters.' 1986 Evening Telegram 2 Apr, p. 3 Some of [the Bonavista fishermen] need their boats for sealing and some more will be putting their crab pots out in a couple of weeks.
2 Attrib, comb ~ boat: see BOAT n 1, ~ gun, ~ plant: facility for the processing of seal 'pelts' and 'blubber' or oil, ~ season.
1987 POOLE 18 When I was fourteen I went in the sealing boat with him in the fall of the year. 1981 SPARKES 163 I remember clearly, when I was nine years old, stepping over a man's sealing gun while he was cleaning it. I was promptly and sternly ordered to step backwards over it again. 1988 GOSSE 32 Their muskets, termed 'swilin' guns,' were originally of two types: the smooth-bore flintlock...and the much heavier shotgun. 1987 Evening Telegram 27 Apr, p. 7 In 1948 I was appointed manager of the sealing plant that used to manufacture the seals that the ships brought in [to St John's] from the ice-fields. [1962] 1987 Evening Telegram 23 June, p. 6 The sealing season officially closed for sealing vessels May 5 [except for] landsmen.
