Plimsoll line
Syllabification: (Plim·soll line)
Pronunciation: /ˈplimsəl, -sōl/
(also Plimsoll mark)
Definition of Plimsoll line
noun
Origin:
named after Samuel Plimsoll (1824–98), the English politician whose agitation in the 1870s resulted in the Merchant Shipping Act of 1876, intended to end the practice of sending to sea overloaded and heavily insured old ships, from which the owners profited if they sank