Definition of "oakum"

[W]ho should it be but Mr. Daniel, all muffled up, and his face as black as the chimney, and covered with dirt, pitch, and tarr, and powder, and muffled with dirty clouts, and his right eye stopped with okum. He is come last night at five o'clock from the fleete, with a comrade of his that hath endangered another eye.

1666 June 14 (date written; Gregorian calendar), Samuel Pepys, Mynors Bright, transcriber, “June 4th, 1666”, in Henry B[enjamin] Wheatley, editor, The Diary of Samuel Pepys […], volume V, London: George Bell & Sons […]; Cambridge: Deighton Bell & Co., published 1895, page 309

It vvas reſolved hovvever to proceed on our Voyage, vvhich vve did for ten Days, in hopes by the Oakums ſvvelling the Leak might grovv leſs; but to our great Surpriſe, after very hard VVeather near Porto Bello, and not being able to reach it, it increaſed to double the Quantity.

1740 March 18 (date written; Gregorian calendar), W. Richardson, “A Letter from Jamaica, by the Author of that in p. 144”, in Sylvanus Urban [pseudonym; Edward Cave], editor, The Gentleman’s Magazine: Or, Monthly Intelligencer, London: […] F. Cave, jun., […], published June 1740, page 300, column 1

[A]s it rained nearly all the time, awnings were put over the hatchways, and all hands sent down between the decks, where we were at work, day after day, picking oakum, until we got enough to caulk the ship all over, and to last the whole voyage.

1840, R[ichard] H[enry] D[ana], Jr., chapter XXVI, in Two Years before the Mast. […] (Harper’s Family Library; no. CVI), New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers […], pages 287–288

[N]ow that I think of it, he's always wanting oakum to stuff into the toes of his boots.

1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “A Right Whale Killed”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, page 362

On the 24th of November, the plaintiff wrote the following reply, addressing it to George Havelock:– "Yours containing order for oakums came duly to hand. As it will take three or four days before the white oakum arrives here, we cannot till after that time supply the same. All will be forwarded together. The price of white and brown oakum will be 30s. per cwt. Yours, &c., W. H. Douglas and Co."

1856 January 17, “Douglas v. Watson”, in Chauncey Smith, editor, English Reports in Law and Equity: […], volume XXXIV, Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown and Company, page 448

Shingle Tiles make a Leak-Proof roof without the use of cements and spun oakums.

1912, “The Murray Roofing Tile Company”, in Sweet’s Catalogue of Building Construction for 1912 […], New York, N.Y.: The Architectural Record Co., page 507

My eyesight began to fail, from the strain of picking oakum in my cell.

1983, Peter Ackroyd, “4 October 1900”, in The Last Testament of Oscar Wilde, London, New York, N.Y.: Penguin Books, published 1993, page 154

Earlier that morning he had gotten the oakum ready for the deck, soaking the hemp in pine tar.

2016 June 7, Yaa Gyasi, “Kojo”, in Homegoing, New York, N.Y.: Alfred A[braham] Knopf, published June 2017, page 116