Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Weatherly character or qualities: said of ships and boats.
  • noun Nautical, the state of a vessel as to her capacity to ply speedily and quickly to windward.

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

  • noun (Naut.) The quality of being weatherly.

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

  • noun nautical The quality of being weatherly.

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

  • noun (of a sailing vessel) the quality of being able to sail close to the wind with little drift to the leeward (even in a stiff wind)

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

weatherly +‎ -ness

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word weatherliness.

Examples

  • She showed her extra speed and extra weatherliness; she drew up again from Hotspur's quarter to her beam; then she could luff up briefly and gain a little more to windward on the Hotspur.

    Hornblower And The Hotspur Forester, C. S. 1962

  • Thanks to her two knots superiority in speed and thanks also to her superior handiness and weatherliness the Estrella was literally making a circle round the Clorinda.

    Hornblower In The West Indies Forester, C. S. 1958

  • White painted and trim, she spelled speed and weatherliness in every line, and a note of admiration escaped Barry as he regarded her clean underbody from a safe distance.

    Gold Out of Celebes Aylward Edward Dingle

  • For the moment, therefore, he contented himself with testing the respective speed and weatherliness of the two ships.

    A Middy of the King A Romance of the Old British Navy Harry Collingwood 1886

  • It was not her speed only -- although that seemed phenomenal, for she swept past every other craft that was going our way as though they had been at anchor; her weatherliness astounded us quite as much as did her speed, for she looked up a good three points higher than did our square-rigged neighbours, while her oil-smooth wake trailed away astern as straight as

    A Middy of the King A Romance of the Old British Navy Harry Collingwood 1886

  • I began to see a French prison looming in the distance; for, from the rapidity with which she had tacked, and the manner in which, notwithstanding our superior weatherliness, she was overhauling us, I knew that our pursuer must be an exceedingly smart ship, and her skipper was acting like a man who had all his wits about him.

    Under the Meteor Flag Log of a Midshipman during the French Revolutionary War Harry Collingwood 1886

  • And if the worst came to the worst and he were overtaken in the calm belt, the two ships would at least make a fair start of it again from the line, when he was not without hopes that the extraordinary weatherliness of his own ship would enable him to keep the advantage already won.

    The Missing Merchantman Harry Collingwood 1886

  • Fortunately the schooner's extraordinary weatherliness stood us in good stead, and enabled us to claw off, but for which we should probably have left her bones, if not our own, there.

    A Middy of the King A Romance of the Old British Navy Harry Collingwood 1886

  • The result was more than satisfactory -- it was a delightful surprise; for not only in her sea-going powers but also in the qualities of speed and weatherliness did the _Petrel_ far exceed the most sanguine anticipations of everybody, including her designer.

    The Missing Merchantman Harry Collingwood 1886

  • Yet I had heard of vessels thus modelled for the sake of securing speed, and fitted with a very deep keel to ensure weatherliness, where light draught of water was not a consideration; and it remained to be seen whether the brigantine was a craft of this class.

    A Middy of the King A Romance of the Old British Navy Harry Collingwood 1886

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.