Retaliate8 Aug 2003

I think the dicionaries are incomplete on this matter (oh the arrogance). It is true that a bilge is the part of a boat. This bilge collects water that can become foul and repulsive, leading to the insult of calling someones opinion or words 'bilge' - short for 'bilgewater'. The bilge pump is a pump that removes water from the bilge, and the manual process of bailing water when this pump breaks is sometimes called bilging (although you are correct that no dictionary I can find uses this definition).