close-reefed
Americanadjective
Etymology
Origin of close-reefed
First recorded in 1750–60
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 light canvas was taken in, every thing made snug on board, two trusty men sent to the wheel, and, under a close-reefed jib and mainsail, the yacht dashed over the waves after the pirate.
From No Moss The Career of a Rolling Stone by Harry Castlemon
Just then we were making fourteen knots, with only a foresail, a fore-topsail, and main-topsail, the latter two close-reefed.
From Medical Life in the Navy by Gordon Stables
The gale which was described in the last chapter, did not prove to be very violent, though it blew sufficiently fresh to reduce the Alabama to close-reefed topsails, with the bonnets off her trysails.
From Memoirs of Service Afloat, During the War Between the States by Raphael Semmes
The would-be housekeeper pushed back her rocking-chair as he began, and tucked her feet under, beside settling her bonnet a little, as if she were close-reefed and anchored to ride out the gale.
From Strangers and Wayfarers by Sarah Orne Jewett
Our decks were constantly flooded, and we could rarely show more than the close-reefed main-topsail and reefed foresail.
From Narrative of the surveying voyages of His Majesty's ships Adventure and Beagle, between the years 1826 and 1836 Volume I. - Proceedings of the First Expedition, 1826-1830 by Robert Fitzroy
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.
