Brewer's: Lubber's Hole

A lazy cowardly way of doing what is appointed, or of evading duty. A seaman's expression. Sailors call the vacant space between the head of a lower-mast and the edge of the top, the lubber's hole, because timid boys get through this space to the top, to avoid the danger and difficulties of the “futtock shrouds.”

Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
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