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, under topsail, 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, and ship.
  • noun (Naut.) See Schooner, and Illustration 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 the gaff 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

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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.

    Mr. Trunnell, Mate of the Ship "Pirate"

  • 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.

    An Odyssey of the North 2010

  • 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

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