mizzen
Americannoun
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a fore-and-aft sail set on a mizzenmast.
adjective
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of or relating to a mizzenmast.
-
noting a sail, yard, boom, etc., or any rigging belonging to a mizzen lower mast or to some upper mast of a mizzenmast.
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noting any stay running aft and upward to the head of a mizzen lower mast or some specified upper mast of a mizzenmast.
mizzen topmast stay.
noun
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a sail set on a mizzenmast
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short for mizzenmast
adjective
Etymology
Origin of mizzen
1375–1425; late Middle English meson, mesan, probably < Italian mezzana
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
I now have to keep fencing with Accrux while I have managed to throw your sword flying and getting stuck into the mizzen mast.
From Economist ● Nov. 15, 2012
Then, languidly raising his hairy legs and wagging them like flags, the old hand semaphored a request for jam to a pal in the port mizzen.
From Time Magazine Archive
Then came word that a freighter had discovered Crowhurst's yacht, ghosting along under its mizzen but still seaworthy, mysteriously abandoned in mid-Atlantic.
From Time Magazine Archive
He lowers his mizzen and rejects her once again.
From Time Magazine Archive
The main and mizzen top-sails were braced aback against the mast, and slowly the Constitution began to move stern foremost through the water.
From Yankee Ships and Yankee Sailors: Tales of 1812 by Barnes, James
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
