alee
Americanadverb
adverb
Etymology
Origin of alee
Explanation
When you're alee, you're on the side of a boat facing away from the wind. If a sailor moves the sail alee, she moves it downwind. Alee is a nautical term, one you're most likely to hear on a boat or ship. Another way to say "on the downwind side" is leeward. Both words include lee, from the Old English hleo, "shelter, cover, defense, or protection." So the alee side of a sailboat is the side that's sheltered from the wind, and the phrase "Hard alee!" is a command to move the sail to the boat's protected side.
Vocabulary lists containing alee
Scrabble: Four-Letter Words with 3 Vowels
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That's the Way the Wind Blows
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4-letter words, List 1
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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.
The 720 ft ship was doing 27 knots and the helm was hard alee.
From The Verge • Aug. 25, 2022
With helm hard alee the Knitsley started to run back to the shelter of nearby Santander, still held by Leftists.
From Time Magazine Archive
When life was young, my white sail hung O’er ocean’s crystal floor; In the fiords alee was the dreaming sea, And the deep sea waves before.
From Zigzag Journeys in Northern Lands; The Rhine to the Arctic; A Summer Trip of the Zigzag Club Through Holland, Germany, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden by Butterworth, Hezekiah
With the sails furled, and the helm lashed alee; Ð applied to ships in a storm.
From Webster's Unabridged Dictionary by Webster, Noah
The helm of a ship is alee when pressed close to the lee side.
From Webster's Unabridged Dictionary by Webster, Noah
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.
