gaff topsail

nounNautical.

Also called fore-and-aft topsail. a jib-headed fore-and-aft sail set above a gaff.
a quadrilateral fore-and-aft sail set above the spanker of a bark, between the gaff of the spanker and an upper gaff.

Origin of gaff topsail

First recorded in 1785–95

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use gaff topsail in a sentence

And raising me in his arms he laid me on the folds of the gaff-topsail, which lay upon the deck near the tiller.
The Coral Island | R.M. Ballantyne
Half an hour later we took in the fore topsail and the main gaff-topsail, so that nothing but our fore and aft sails remained.
Up the River | Oliver Optic
The main gaff-topsail was next set, and the Josephine was then under full sail.
Down the Rhine | Oliver Optic
Within a minute the mainsail and gaff-topsail were hauled down, so that the ship might fall off, and the jib hauled down.
The South Pole, Volumes 1 and 2 | Roald Amundsen
The main gaff-topsail was taken in, and then the schooner had only her jib, foresail, and mainsail.
Dikes and Ditches | Oliver Optic

British Dictionary definitions for gaff-topsail

gaff-topsail

noun

a sail set above a gaffsail

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

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