Originally a seaman who, not wanting to work, preferred to exist by hanging around ports and harbors and living on the charity of others. Now more generally describing any loafer around the waterfront who prefers not to work.

The party to which a Bill of Exchange is addressed for payment or acceptance. Usually, the Importer in an international trade transaction. In a Letter of Credit transaction it may be the issuing or advising bank.

A cracking process that requires the simultaneous action of a corrodent and sustained tensile stress. This excludes corrosion-reduced sections that fail by fast fracture. It also excludes intercrystalline or transcrystalline corrosion, which can disintegr ...

devoid of water.

Foreign Military Financing

Port State Control

All rigging, cranes, etc., utilized on a ship to load or unload cargo.

To put a narrow piece of canvas around it after it has been wormed, and before it has been served.

Lacking an affinity for, repelling, orfailing to absorb or adsorb water. Contrast with hydrophilic.

check chamber-A chamber use to check the sensing elements of radiosonde equipment.

In general, solar radiation received at the earth's surface. Contracted from incoming solar radiation.

Targeted Export Assistance

A knot used to temporarily shorten a line.

The notification to a client by a brokerage house that more funds are required to bring a margin.

A shortening of the term, "Roll On/Roll Off." A method of ocean cargo service using a vessel with ramps which allows wheeled vehicles to be loaded and discharged without cranes.

One of the relatively scarce and valuable metals: gold, silver, and the platinum-group metals. Also called noble metal(s).

Determined by weighing a special type of wooden stick that has been exposed in the woods, its weight being proportional to its contained water.

A small, limited-capacity central processing unit contained entirely on one semiconductor chip.

Electromagnetic radiation lying in the wavelength interval between 0.8 micron and I millimeter. At the lower limit of this interval, the infrared radiation spectrum is bounded by visible radiation, while on its upper limit it is bounded by microwave radia ...

Read Only Memory. A memory that cannot be altered in normal use of a computer, Usually used to store information permanently, such as firmware programs.