“On the starboard quarter, hull down, sir,” answered the look-out.
The Champion could still be seen, hull down, but the chase was lost sight of.
Sail was then trimmed, and in less than three hours the barque was hull down, though still in pursuit of the Rose.
The sail was a barkantine, three points on the weather bow, hull down.
Some ships would be hull down and some with only the masts and smoke showing.
If we can keep this up,” said Tom, joyfully, “she will soon be hull down.
We hung at last, hull down, facing the Earthward hemisphere of the Lunar disc.
The vessel is hull down, and without the glass you can't be sure what she is.
It looked as if you'd have her hull down and out of the race, if you kept on.
Some of those that started with him are hull down astarn now.
"seed covering," from Old English hulu "husk, pod," from Proto-Germanic *hulus "to cover" (cf. Old High German hulla, hulsa; German Hülle, Hülse, Dutch huls). Figurative use by 1831.
"body of a ship," 1550s, perhaps from hull (n.1) on fancied resemblance of ship keels to open peapods (cf. Latin carina "keel of a ship," originally "shell of a nut;" Greek phaselus "light passenger ship, yacht," literally "bean pod;" French coque "hull of a ship; shell of a walnut or egg"). Alternative etymology is from Middle English hoole "ship's keel" (mid-15c.), from the same source as hold (n.).
"to remove the husk of," early 15c., from hull (n.1). Related: Hulled, which can mean both "having a particular kind of hull" and "stripped of the hull."