reef

The Sailor's Word-Book

A certain portion of a sail comprehended between the head of a sail and any of the reef-bands. The intention of each reef is to reduce the sail in proportion to the increase of the wind; there are also reefs parallel to the foot or bottom of large sails, extended upon booms.

♦ Close-reefed is when all the reefs of the top-sails are taken in.

♦ Reef is also a group or continuous chain of rocks, sufficiently near the surface of the water to occasion its breaking over them. (See fringing reefs and barrier reefs.)

Related Words

Reef
·noun A large vein of auriferous quartz; — so called in Australia. Hence, any body of rock yielding...

Webster's Dictionary of the English Language
reef
I. n. term in gold-mining; a vein ofauriferous quartz. Called by the Californian miners a vein, or...

Dictionary of Australasian Words Phrases and Usages by Edward E. Morris
Reef-band
·noun A piece of canvas sewed across a sail to strengthen it in the part where the eyelet holes for ...

Webster's Dictionary of the English Language
bag-reef
A fourth or lower reef of fore-and-aft sails, often used in the royal navy. ♦ Bag-reef of top-sail...

The Sailor's Word-Book
balance-reef
A reef-band that crosses a sail from the outer head-earing to the tack diagonally, making it nearly ...

The Sailor's Word-Book
reef-band
A narrow band of canvas sewed on the reef-line to support the strain of the reef-points. It is pierc...

The Sailor's Word-Book
reef-cringles
See cringle. ...

The Sailor's Word-Book
reef-earings
See earings. ...

The Sailor's Word-Book
reef-knot
Is one in which the ends fall always in a line with the outer parts; in fact, two loops, easy to unt...

The Sailor's Word-Book
reef-line
Casual aids in bad weather to help the men at the earings. When the vessel was going free, and the s...

The Sailor's Word-Book
reef-pendant
A rope going through a cringle in the after-leech of a boom main-sail, and through a check sheave-ho...

The Sailor's Word-Book
reef-points
Small flat pieces of plaited cordage or soft rope, tapering from the middle towards each end, whose ...

The Sailor's Word-Book
reef-tackles
, are indeed pendants and tackles. The pendant is rove through the sister-block, then a sheave in th...

The Sailor's Word-Book
shore reef
The same as fringing reef. ...

The Sailor's Word-Book
spanish reef
The yards lowered on the cap. Also, a knot tied in the head of the jib. ...

The Sailor's Word-Book
reef-tackle span
Two cringles in the bolt-rope, about a couple of feet apart, when a block is used. ...

The Sailor's Word-Book
hands reef top-sails!
The order to reef by all hands, instead of the watch, or watch and idlers. ...

The Sailor's Word-Book
shake out, a reef, to
See let out, a reef, to ...

The Sailor's Word-Book
let out, a reef, to
, or shake out, a reef, to To increase the dimensions of a sail, by untying the points confining a...

The Sailor's Word-Book