burgee

American  

[bur-jee, bur-jee] / ˈbɜr dʒi, bɜrˈdʒi /

noun

1. a triangular flag or one having a shallow, angular indentation in the fly, forming two tails, used as an identification flag, especially by yachts.

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burgee British  

/ ˈbɜːdʒiː /

noun

1. nautical a triangular or swallow-tailed flag flown from the mast of a merchant ship for identification and from the mast of a yacht to indicate its owner's membership of a particular yacht club

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Etymology

Origin of burgee

1840–50; perhaps shortening of *burgee's flag, by reanalysis of *burgess flag, burgess translating French bourgeois in sense “owner” (of a ship)

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

burgee

Bertarelli's catamaran, sailing under the burgee of the Societe Nautique de Geneve from landlocked Switzerland, is the width of two tennis courts and has a tilting mast that towers 17 storeys high.

From Reuters ● Feb. 4, 2010

With a stickpin burgee of the Royal Yacht Squadron in his necktie and a briar pipe in his mouth.

From Time Magazine Archive

Blase Prague expected to see the fluttering brown burgee of Bethlen's mustache leading another Hungarian Cabinet before long.

From Time Magazine Archive

I have a real sorrow to think that I could not fly the commodore's burgee while Sir James was still alive.

From Time Magazine Archive

Many old friends here greeted me, and many new visitors came on board to congratulate, while His Royal Highness the Commodore of the Royal Canoe Club, whose burgee flew at my mast-head, graciously shook hands.

From The Voyage Alone in the Yawl "Rob Roy" by John MacGregor

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