stream the buoy

stream the buoy (third-person singular simple present streams the buoy, present participle streaming the buoy, simple past and past participle streamed the buoy)

1. (nautical, dated) To drop the anchor buoy overboard, before letting go of the anchor. This is done to avoid the buoy getting obstructed by the anchor chain.
   • 1892, James Choyce, The Log of a Jack Tar:

     I was aft attending to the sails and bringing the brig to her berth, Boyd and some others standing by the anchor. On streaming the buoy it of course went adrift, but was not missed till after the anchor was let go. When I went forward to attend to the cable and looked for the buoy I saw it floating away astern, and was told the buoy-rope must have been cut by the rocks.

• “buoy”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.