Brewer's: Weigh Anchor

Be off, get you gone. To weigh anchor is to lift it from its moorings, so that the ship may start on her voyage. As soon as this is done the ship is under-weigh- i.e. in movement. (Saxon, waegan, to life up, carry.)

“Get off with you; come, come! weigh anchor.” —SirW.Scott: The Antiquary.

Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
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