Q: "frowning point"?

Joel S. Berson Berson at ATT.NET
Tue Jan 29 01:48:26 UTC 2013


In text circa 1830-1840, describing a portion of a sailing voyage
when the ship was close to land and the crew concerned about
crashing, I read "we were squeezing round the high and frowning
point, and in good time wholly weathered it and got into an open sea
to leeward ..."

I don't find "frowning (point)" in the OED.  What does it mean? I am
guessing a "point" (direction) relative to the wind when sailing upwind.

Joel

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