drail

American  

[dreyl] / dreɪl /

noun

1. a hook with a lead-covered shank used in trolling.

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verb (used without object)

1. to fish by trolling with a drail.

drail British  

/ dreɪl /

noun

1. a weighted hook used in trolling

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verb

1. (intr) to fish with a drail

Etymology

Origin of drail

1625–35; special use of obsolete English, Middle English drail to drag along, apparently alteration of trail under influence of drag, draw, etc.

Example Sentences

Use the Fish Flash with a downrigger for stripers, coupled with a drail for teasing pelagics, or to make a bubbling commotion on the surface.

From Time Magazine Archive

See, he's whirling his drail; there! now he has sent it far out into the water.

From Elsie at Nantucket by Finley, Martha

The first-named are caught by hook and line operated by means of poles rigged out from the boat much in the same way, apparently, as we drail for mackerel on the southwest coast.

From Scientific American Supplement, No. 421, January 26, 1884 by Various

Yah—der drail to find your prudder und der drail for us to git pack py.

From The Rover Boys in Alaska or Lost in the Fields of Ice by Richards, Dick

And he was as good as his threat: I saw the drail skipping on the top of the wave as my line came in empty.

From Nooks and Corners of the New England Coast by Drake, Samuel Adams