The protuberant part of a cask, which is usually in the middle.

The breadth of a ship’s bottom, or that part of her floor which approaches to a horizontal direction, on which she would rest, if aground. Hence, when this part of a ship is fractured, she is said to be bilged.

To suffer a fracture in the bilge; to spring a leak by a fracture in the bilge. The term is used also when a ship has some of her timbers struck off by a rock or an anchor, and springs a leak.