gaff topsail
noun
a jib-headed fore-and-aft sail set above a gaff.
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gaff topsail
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gaff-topsail
gaff-topsailnouna sail set above a gaffsail
gaff topsail
American
[gaf top-seyl, top-suhl]
/ ˈgæf ˈtɒpˌseɪl, ˈtɒpˌsəl /
noun
Nautical.
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Also called fore-and-aft topsail. a jib-headed fore-and-aft sail set above a gaff.
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a quadrilateral fore-and-aft sail set above the spanker of a bark, between the gaff of the spanker and an upper gaff.
gaff-topsail
British
noun
Etymology
Origin of gaff topsail
First recorded in 1785–95
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.
See Examples For:
A belt of smoky red spread swiftly along the horizon, he heard the high gaff topsail flap, booms rattled and then the yacht got quiet.
From Wyndham's Pal by Harold Bindloss
The mainsail was cast loose, jib and staysail ready, and the gaff topsail would not take many minutes to run up in its place.
From In the King's Name The Cruise of the "Kestrel" by George Manville Fenn
The sharp crack of a shot from the six-pounder was the reply, and simultaneously, holes appeared in the gaff topsail and the main topgallant staysail.
From The Boy With the U. S. Life-Savers by Francis Rolt-Wheeler
The moment the boat left the side Brabant set the gaff topsail and square-sail, and headed the Loelia towards the north end of the island.
From The Trader's Wife 1901 by Louis Becke
The wind was light, and we spread more canvas than she did, having royals and sky-sails fore and aft, and ten studding-sails; while she, being an hermaphrodite brig, had only a gaff topsail aft.
From Two Years Before the Mast by Richard Henry Dana
Two partly seen figures were busy bending on a gaff-topsail about the foot of her foremast, and Wheelock turned as one of them came slouching aft when the sail had been sent aloft.
From Thrice Armed by Harold Bindloss
The wind was so light that both the jib and gaff-topsail were set, and the boat which, at a distance, would have looked like a little cutter, stood well up to her canvas.
From The Three Admirals by J.R. Wells
As Johnny looked at her he saw a couple of young tars mount the ratlines, and a moment afterward the flying-jib was run up, and the gaff-topsail given to the wind.
From No Moss The Career of a Rolling Stone by Harry Castlemon
The Merrymaid was constantly adopting little disguises of the sort, running sometimes under barked sails, sometimes under white, and alternating between a jib and a gaff-topsail with a square head.
From Beggars on Horseback by F. Tennyson (Fryniwyd Tennyson) Jesse
Then I needed to think of my own safety and passed a turn of the mizzen gaff-topsail downhaul about me, belaying to a pin as the cataclysm hit us.
From The Grain Ship by Morgan Robertson
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.
