Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To roll up and secure (a flag or sail, for example) to something else.
  • intransitive verb To be or become rolled up.
  • noun The act or an instance of rolling up.
  • noun A single roll or a rolled section.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To wrap or roll, as a sail, close to the yard, stay, or mast, and fasten by a gasket or cord; draw up or draw into close compass, as a flag.
  • To ruffle.
  • noun A roll of what is furled.
  • noun The manner of furling (a sail), or the appearance presented when furled: as, a vessel is judged by the furl of the sails.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To draw up or gather into close compass; to wrap or roll, as a sail, close to the yard, stay, or mast, or, as a flag, close to or around its staff, securing it there by a gasket or line.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb transitive To lower, roll up and secure (something, such as a sail or flag)

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb form into a cylinder by rolling

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Perhaps from French ferler, from Old French ferlier, to fasten : ferm, firm; see firm + lier, to bind (from Latin ligāre; see leig- in Indo-European roots).]

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Examples

Comments

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  • "Johnny Bowden and I were both rowing in haste to get out where we could catch the breeze and put up the small sail which lay clumsily furled along the gunwale."

    - Sarah Orne Jewett, 'Green Island'.

    September 8, 2009

  • Furling a large umbrella. ColdComfort Farm.

    February 21, 2013