Sail

Webster's Dictionary of the English Language

·noun A wing; a van.

II. Sail ·noun To set sail; to begin a voyage.

III. Sail ·noun The extended surface of the arm of a windmill.

IV. Sail ·noun A sailing vessel; a vessel of any kind; a craft.

V. Sail ·noun Anything resembling a sail, or regarded as a sail.

VI. Sail ·vt To fly through; to glide or move smoothly through.

VII. Sail ·noun To move through or on the water; to swim, as a fish or a water fowl.

VIII. Sail ·noun A passage by a sailing vessel; a journey or excursion upon the water.

IX. Sail ·vt To direct or manage the motion of, as a vessel; as, to sail one's own ship.

X. Sail ·noun To be conveyed in a vessel on water; to pass by water; as, they sailed from London to Canton.

XI. Sail ·noun To move smoothly through the air; to glide through the air without apparent exertion, as a bird.

XII. Sail ·vt To pass or move upon, as in a ship, by means of sails; hence, to move or journey upon (the water) by means of steam or other force.

XIII. Sail ·noun An extent of canvas or other fabric by means of which the wind is made serviceable as a power for propelling vessels through the water.

XIV. Sail ·noun To be impelled or driven forward by the action of wind upon sails, as a ship on water; to be impelled on a body of water by the action of steam or other power.

Related Words

  • sail

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

    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

  • drift-sail

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

    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

  • 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