drift-sail

The Sailor's Word-Book

A contrivance, by means of immersing a sail, to diminish the drift of a ship during a gale of wind. (See drags.)

Related Words

  • Drift

    ·noun Anything driven at random. II. Drift ·noun A driving; a violent movement. III. Drift ·noun I...

    Webster's Dictionary of the English Language

  • drift

    The altered position of a vessel by current or falling to leeward when hove-to or lying-to in a gale...

    The Sailor's Word-Book

  • Sail

    ·noun A wing; a van. II. Sail ·noun To set sail; to begin a voyage. III. Sail ·noun The extended s...

    Webster's Dictionary of the English Language

  • sail

    The terms applicable to the parts of a sail comprise: Seaming the cloths together; cutting the gor...

    The Sailor's Word-Book

  • Star drift

    ·add. ·- Similar and probably related motion of the stars of an asterism, as distinguished from appa...

    Webster's Dictionary of the English Language

  • drift-bolts

    Commonly made of steel, are used as long punches for driving out other bolts. ...

    The Sailor's Word-Book

  • drift-ice

    The debris of the main pack. (See open ice.) ...

    The Sailor's Word-Book

  • drift-mud

    Consisting chiefly of an argillaceous earth, brought down by the rivers, floated about, and successi...

    The Sailor's Word-Book

  • drift-net

    A large net, with meshes of one inch, used in the pilchard fishery in August; also, for herrings and...

    The Sailor's Word-Book

  • drift-pieces

    Solid pieces fitted at the drifts, forming the scrolls on the drifts: they are commonly mitred into ...

    The Sailor's Word-Book

  • drift-way

    Synonymous with lee-way. ...

    The Sailor's Word-Book

  • spoon-drift

    A showery sprinkling of the water swept from the tops of the waves in a brisk gale. Driving snow is ...

    The Sailor's Word-Book

  • sprit-sail top-sail

    A sail extended above the sprit-sail by a yard, which hung under the jib-boom. ♦ Top-gallant sprit...

    The Sailor's Word-Book

  • Studding sail

    ·- A light sail set at the side of a principal or square sail of a vessel in free winds, to increase...

    Webster's Dictionary of the English Language

  • Water sail

    ·- A small sail sometimes set under a studding sail or under a driver boom, and reaching nearly to t...

    Webster's Dictionary of the English Language

  • Main-sail

    (Gr. artemon), answering to the modern "mizzen-sail," as some suppose. Others understand the "jib," ...

    Easton's Bible Dictionary

  • top sail

    He paid his debts at Portsmouth with the topsail; i.e. he went to. sea and left them unpaid. SCT sol...

    Dictionary of The Vulgar Tongue by Francis Grose

  • drag-sail

    Any sail with its clues stopped so as when veered away over the quarter to make a stop-water when ve...

    The Sailor's Word-Book

  • fore-sail

    The principal sail set on the fore-mast. (See sail.) ...

    The Sailor's Word-Book

  • ghrime-sail

    The old term for a smoke-sail. ...

    The Sailor's Word-Book

  • lug-sail

    A sail used in boats and small vessels. It is in form like a gaff-sail, but depends entirely on the ...

    The Sailor's Word-Book

  • main-sail

    This, in a square-rigged vessel, is distinguished by the so-termed square main-sail; in a fore-and-a...

    The Sailor's Word-Book

  • sail burton

    A purchase extending from topmast-head to deck, for sending sails aloft ready for bending; it usuall...

    The Sailor's Word-Book

  • sail ho!

    The exclamation used when a strange ship is first discerned at sea either from the deck or from the ...

    The Sailor's Word-Book

  • sail-hook

    A small hook used for holding the seams of a sail while in the act of sewing. ...

    The Sailor's Word-Book

  • sail-loft

    A large apartment in dockyards where the sails are cut out and made. ...

    The Sailor's Word-Book

  • sail-loosers

    Men specially appointed to loose the sails when getting under weigh, or loosing them to dry. ...

    The Sailor's Word-Book

  • sail-maker

    A qualified person who (with his mates) is employed on board ship in making, repairing, or altering ...

    The Sailor's Word-Book

  • sail-netting

    The fore-topmast staysail, main-topmast staysail, and main staysail are generally stowed in the nett...

    The Sailor's Word-Book

  • sheer-sail

    A drift-sail. ...

    The Sailor's Word-Book

  • smoke-sail

    A small sail hoisted against the fore-mast when a ship rides head to wind, to give the smoke of the ...

    The Sailor's Word-Book

  • sprit-sail

    A sail formerly attached to a yard which hung under the bowsprit, and of importance in naval actions...

    The Sailor's Word-Book

  • square-sail

    The flying sail, set on the fore-yard of a schooner, or the spread-yard of a cutter or sloop. ...

    The Sailor's Word-Book

  • steering-sail

    An incorrect name for a studding-sail. ...

    The Sailor's Word-Book

  • storm-sail

    A sail made of stout No. 1 canvas, of reduced dimensions, for use in a gale. ...

    The Sailor's Word-Book

  • strange sail

    A vessel heaving in sight, of which the particulars are unknown. ...

    The Sailor's Word-Book

  • under sail

    The state of a ship when she is in motion from the action of wind on her sails. ...

    The Sailor's Word-Book

  • water-sail

    A save-all, or small sail, set occasionally under the lower studding-sail or driver-boom, in a fair ...

    The Sailor's Word-Book

  • wind-sail

    A funnel of canvas employed to ventilate a ship by conveying a stream of fresh air down to the lower...

    The Sailor's Word-Book

  • heavy drift-ice

    Dense ice, which has a great depth in the water in proportion to its size, and is not in a state of ...

    The Sailor's Word-Book

  • crowd sail, to

    To carry an extraordinary press of canvas on a ship, as in pursuit of, or flight from, an enemy, &c....

    The Sailor's Word-Book

  • main-sail haul!

    The order given to haul the after-yards round when the ship is nearly head to wind in tacking. ...

    The Sailor's Word-Book

  • make sail, to

    To increase the quantity of sail already set, either by letting out reefs, or by setting additional ...

    The Sailor's Word-Book

  • middling a sail

    Arranging it for bending to the yard. ...

    The Sailor's Word-Book

  • out-sail, to

    To sail faster than another ship, or to make a particular voyage with greater despatch. ...

    The Sailor's Word-Book

  • press of sail

    As much sail as the state of the wind, &c., will permit a ship to carry. ...

    The Sailor's Word-Book

  • pricking a sail

    The running a middle seam between the two seams which unite every cloth of a sail to the next adjoin...

    The Sailor's Word-Book

  • sprit-sail yard

    A yard slung across the bowsprit, lashed to the knight-heads, and used to spread the guys of the jib...

    The Sailor's Word-Book

  • sprit-sail yarding

    A cruelty in which some fishermen wreak vengeance on sharks, dog-fish, &c., that encroach on their b...

    The Sailor's Word-Book

  • square main-sail

    See main-sail. ...

    The Sailor's Word-Book

  • square-sail boom

    A boom hooked on to an eye-bolt in the fore-part of the fore-mast of a fore-and-aft vessel, to boom ...

    The Sailor's Word-Book

  • studding-sail boom

    A spar rigged out for the purpose of setting a studding-sail, and taking its name from the sail it b...

    The Sailor's Word-Book

  • studding-sail yard

    The spar to which the head of the studding-sail is extended. ...

    The Sailor's Word-Book

  • top-sail haul!

    or main-topsail haul! When the main-sail is not set, this is the order given to haul the after-yar...

    The Sailor's Word-Book

  • red sail-yard dockers

    Buyers of stores stolen out of the royal yards and docks. ...

    Dictionary of The Vulgar Tongue by Francis Grose

  • bunt of a sail

    The middle part of it, formed designedly into a bag or cavity, that the sail may gather more wind. I...

    The Sailor's Word-Book

  • depth of a sail

    The extent of the square sails from the head-rope to the foot-rope, or the length of the after-leech...

    The Sailor's Word-Book

  • hullock of a sail

    A small part lowered in a gale. ...

    The Sailor's Word-Book

  • lateen sail and yard

    A long triangular sail, bent by its foremost leech to a lateen yard, which hoists obliquely to the m...

    The Sailor's Word-Book

  • point a sail, to

    To affix points through the eyelet-holes of the reefs. (See points.) ...

    The Sailor's Word-Book

  • shoulder-of-mutton sail

    A kind of triangular sail of peculiar form, used mostly in boats. It is very handy and safe, particu...

    The Sailor's Word-Book

  • skin of a sail

    The outside part when a sail is furled. To furl in a clean skin, is the habit of a good seaman. ♦ ...

    The Sailor's Word-Book

  • sprit-sail sheet knot

    May be crowned and walled, or double-walled, and is often used as a stopper-knot. ...

    The Sailor's Word-Book

  • goose-wings of a sail

    The situation of a course when the buntlines and lee-clue are hauled up, and the weather-clue down. ...

    The Sailor's Word-Book

  • roll up a sail, to

    To hand it quickly. ...

    The Sailor's Word-Book

  • earing-cringle, at the head of a sail

    In sail-making it is an eye spliced in the bolt-rope, to which the much smaller head-rope is attache...

    The Sailor's Word-Book