chafing gear

1. 1.

   covering (usually rope or canvas) of a line or spar to protect it from friction

   Broadercovering

Questions about chafing gear

What does chafing gear mean?

chafing gear means "covering (usually rope or canvas) of a line or spar to protect it from friction".

Is chafing gear a common word?

chafing gear is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.