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• furl
  furl

  verb (used with object)

  to gather into a compact roll and bind securely, as a sail against a spar or a flag against its staff.
• furl.
  furl.

  abbreviation

  furlough.

furl

¹ American  

[furl] / fɜrl /

verb (used with object)

• furls,
  present (3rd person singular)
• furled,
  past participle,  past
• furling
  present participle

1. to gather into a compact roll and bind securely, as a sail against a spar or a flag against its staff.

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verb (used without object)

• furls,
  present (3rd person singular)
• furled,
  past participle,  past
• furling
  present participle

1. to become furled.

noun

1. the act of furling.

2. something furled, as a roll.

idioms

1. furl in the bunt, to furl (a square sail) by gathering canvas upward, so as to load the yard equally at all points.

2. furl in a body, to furl (a square sail) with loose canvas gathered at the mast, so as to make a harbor furl.

furl. ² American  

abbreviation

1. furlough.

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furl British  

/ fɜːl /

verb

1. to roll up (an umbrella, a flag, etc) neatly and securely or (of an umbrella, flag, etc) to be rolled up in this way

2. (tr) nautical to gather in (a square sail)

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noun

1. the act or an instance of furling

2. a single rolled-up section

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• furler
  noun
• furlable
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Participles

• furling
  present
• furled
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• furl
  simple
• furls
  simple
• have furled
  perfect
• has furled
  perfect
• am furling
  progressive
• are furling
  progressive
• is furling
  progressive
• have been furling
  perfect progressive
• has been furling
  perfect progressive

Past

• furled
  simple
• had furled
  perfect
• was furling
  progressive
• were furling
  progressive
• had been furling
  perfect progressive

Future

• will furl
  simple
• will have furled
  perfect
• will be furling
  progressive
• will have been furling
  perfect progressive

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Etymology

Origin of furl

1550–60; compare Middle French ferler in same sense, perhaps representing Old French ferlier to chain, fasten, equivalent to fer firm (< Latin firmus ) + lier to bind (< Latin ligāre )

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Explanation

To furl is to roll something up, the way you furl your sleeping bag before sliding it into your backpack on a camping trip. Furl comes from roots meaning "to hold firmly" and "to bind." It's frequently used when sailors take down sails and roll them securely: "Furl the main sail! There's a storm brewing!" You can also use it for a leaf or flower that's curled up, as opposed to unfurled: "Those blossoms furl at night and open in the daytime." Or, if you want to show off your vocabulary, you might say: "Let me just furl these burritos and then we can eat."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

furl furls furled furling

Told in rhyming verse, Carroll’s trademark use of deep reds and blue give the proceedings an eerie whimsy, and her layouts — always brilliant — furl and explode across the page.

From The Verge ● Dec. 13, 2018

Smith: I go out on the yard to furl the sail and all that stuff.

From Slate ● Jun. 16, 2017

Of course, don’t furl the flag or shut down those offshore accounts or start writing the complete history of American decline quite yet.

From The Guardian ● Apr. 29, 2016

Behind him, shaven-headed demonstrators furl the English flag, the Cross of St. George.

From Time ● Jul. 29, 2011

“They furl their sails at double-time, then off they go,” he said, “into the city like mice into grain.”

From "Beyond the Bright Sea" by Lauren Wolk

Her Bengali furls backward toward its village origins.

From The New Yorker ● Mar. 28, 2016

As furls of smoke spread out on a screen above him, a voice intoned "This is the night of the demon" over thunderous bass.

From The Guardian ● Oct. 27, 2010

One of the boys furls the mizzen royal.

From Two Years Before the Mast by Richard Henry Dana

What shall be done when public credit staggers, when commerce furls her slackened sail, when property all over the nation changes its owners and relations?

From An Essay on Slavery and Abolitionism With reference to the duty of American females by Catharine Esther Beecher

Now comes the storm, thought Heiton to himself, and began to collect his thoughts, as the cautious master of a vessel furls his sails, and makes his ship snug, when he discerns the approaching squall.

From Wilson's Tales of the Borders and of Scotland Volume 7 by Various

They packed up their chairs and furled banners, as the makeshift tent city slowly transformed back into a standard campus plaza.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 14, 2024

The baby’s tail or “fluke,” critical to swimming, was still furled from being compacted in utero.

From National Geographic ● Aug. 31, 2023

The statue depicted a young boy, his chin up and hat tipped back, holding a furled Confederate flag to his side.

From Washington Post ● Mar. 14, 2022

In an affidavit, Halim said a man named “Wilbur” or “Kinly” had created a diversion at the back of the ballroom before the shooting, igniting a furled sock as a makeshift smoke bomb.

From Seattle Times ● Nov. 17, 2021

The Dolphin rounded to, her top sails were furled, and with a great creaking of lines and shudder of canvas, she came to rest alongside the Wethersfield dock.

From "The Witch of Blackbird Pond" by Elizabeth George Speare

Near the bandstand, a group of people danced in a circle to Khmer music, dreamily furling their fingers and twisting their wrists.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 12, 2022

Decades after the furling of Britain’s union flag, he waved his liberation credentials with such skill and frequency that he stood as an emblem, however flawed, of Africa’s yearning to be free of outside control.

From New York Times ● Nov. 15, 2017

Mostly, though, what’s satisfying about “Other Lives” is that there’s some actual meat on the bones of the story; it’s not just insinuation and cigarette smoke furling into a dark bar.

From Salon ● Jul. 20, 2015

A problem with the furling system on the main sail was the cause of Ainslie's problems, according to Branson.

From BBC ● Jan. 12, 2015

Some of the crew were on the yards, furling the sails; some of them, down below.

From "The Reader" by Traci Chee

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