Showing results for "rigging"

• present participle of rig.

rigging

American  

[rig-ing] / ˈrɪg ɪŋ /

noun

• riggings
  plural

1. the ropes, chains, etc., employed to support and work the masts, yards, sails, etc., on a ship.

2. lifting or hauling tackle.

3. Informal. clothing.

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rigging British  

/ ˈrɪɡɪŋ /

noun

1. the shrouds, stays, halyards, etc, of a vessel

2. the bracing wires, struts, and lines of a biplane, balloon, etc

3. any form of lifting gear, tackle, etc

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• riggings
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of rigging

First recorded in 1480–90; rig + -ing ¹

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Explanation

Everything on a sailboat or ship that holds the sails up is its rigging. The rigging typically includes masts and ropes. Sometimes the term rigging is used for just about everything on a sailing vessel, including the sails themselves. You can also use this noun for the process of adjusting or setting up these parts, either on a ship or an airship, parachute, or hang-glider. Rigging comes from the verb rig, which was originally nautical and meant just "to fit with sails."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

rigging riggings

It comes after the same UK court overturned five convictions of ex-Barclays bankers in the rate rigging trials earlier this week.

From BBC ● Oct. 9, 2026

Authorities said it was the most voted name in an online poll done in May, but some online media users accused authorities of rigging the vote.

From Barron's ● Oct. 7, 2026

To create the sequence, Nolan’s team built a sort of silo on the beach, rigging it with minuscule LED lights to mimic sunlight leaking through chinks in the horse’s hull.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 20, 2026

Except for when passengers, after taking turns at rigging, filed below deck to explore the ship’s white-oak skeleton, which flexed and creaked in the current—the ancient sounds of a seafaring world that’s all but lost.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 15, 2026

More sponges hung down from each boat’s rigging.

From "Shipwrecked!" by Martin W. Sandler

Instead, firefighters responded to the scene with ropes and riggings and rappelled down to the man’s location.

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 15, 2022

After boarding their ships, the players unfurled sails, turned rudders, and climbed riggings to move between a series of tropical islands, climbing ashore to explore the new locations.

From The Verge ● Jun. 13, 2016

Back home, he fed his semi-abstracting campaign with motifs from summer sojourns in Gloucester, Massachusetts: signs, boat riggings, gas pumps.

From The New Yorker ● Jun. 13, 2016

Robert Brill’s clean, sturdy sets included towering masts, spidery riggings and, in one scene, a brilliantly realized whale-rendering works.

From New York Times ● May 2, 2010

Imagine that by some miracle of dread or reverence they lowered their spyglasses, turned, set their riggings, sailed on.

From "The Poisonwood Bible" by Barbara Kingsolver

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