Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A square sail set above the lowest sail on the mast of a square-rigged ship.
- noun A triangular or square sail set above the gaff of a lower sail on a fore-and-aft-rigged ship.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Same as
topsails over (which see, undertopsail , n.). - noun Nautical, a square sail next above the lowest or chief sail of a mast. It is carried on a topsail-yard.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Naut.) In a square-rigged vessel, the sail next above the lowermost sail on a mast. This sail is the one most frequently reefed or furled in working the ship. In a fore-and-aft rigged vessel, the sail set upon and above the gaff. See
cutter ,schooner ,sail , andship . - noun (Naut.) See
Schooner , andIllustration in Appendix.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun nautical A
sail or either of the two sails rigged just above the course sail and supported by the topmast on a square-rigged sailing ship. - noun nautical In a
fore-and-aft -rigged sailing boat, the sail that is set above thegaff at the top part of the mast.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a sail (or either of a pair of sails) immediately above the lowermost sail of a mast and supported by a topmast
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word topsail.
Examples
-
We took in topsail and staysail, dropped the main peak, and as we got abreast of the principal wharf jibed the mainsail.
Charley's Coup 2010
-
Her main topsail blew out suddenly and went streaming forth in the gale, a jib split to ribbons before their eyes, and spar after spar was carried away.
The Windy Hill 1922
-
We took in topsail and staysail, dropped the main-peak, and as we got abreast of the principal wharf jibed the mainsail.
Charley's "Coup" 1905
-
We took in topsail and staysail, dropped the main peak, and as we got abreast of the principal wharf jibed the mainsail.
Charley's Coup 1905
-
Her topsail was the only canvas she had set, and she was so low in the water that I could not see her deck amidships at that distance.
-
Thus a few minutes of the voyage were lost by backing the Elsinore's main-topsail and deadening her way while the service was read and O'Sullivan was slid overboard with the inevitable sack of coal at his feet.
CHAPTER XXI 2010
-
And on one side, and one side only, the wall had fallen away till it was like the slope of the decks in a topsail breeze.
-
The lower-topsail, its sheets parted by the fall of the crojack-yard, was tearing out of the bolt-ropes and ribboning away to leeward and making such an uproar that they might well expect its yard to carry away.
CHAPTER XLVI 2010
-
By saving money, by earning more, and by each of us foregoing a bicycle on his birthday, we had collected the purchase price of the Mist, a beamy twenty-eight-footer, sloop-rigged, with baby topsail and centerboard.
To Repel Boarders 2010
-
You know what it is to lay out on a topsail yard in the thick of it, bucking sleet and snow and frozen canvas till you're ready to just let go and cry like a baby.
SIWASH 2010
Comments
Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.