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:
It was a fine, clear, frosty morning, and the Badger quickly sent up his gaff topsail and began to overhaul the other, so that by nine o'clock the two vessels were only a mile apart.
From King's Cutters and Smugglers 1700-1855 by E. Keble (Edward Keble) Chatterton
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 big gaff topsail was next hauled down and carefully stowed away, and finally the mainsail was lowered, stowed, and the coat put over it.
From Dick Leslie's Luck A Story of Shipwreck and Adventure by Harold Piffard
"Maybe," continued the mate, "she will soon have too much breeze; that gaff topsail is foolish in a boat with no deck and no sailor on board."
From Florence and Northern Tuscany with Genoa With Sixteen Illustrations In Colour By William Parkinson And Sixteen Other Illustrations, Second Edition by Edward Hutton
She was rigged with a mainsail, a mizen, and a foresail, to which they added a sliding bowsprit, so that a jib could be set in light winds, with a flying gaff topsail.
From The Three Admirals by J.R. Wells
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
There and then, with a bight of the gaff-topsail halliards, he gave me such a dressing down as I have never forgotten, You Sing standing by with a face like a door-knocker for expressionless calm.
From The Log of a Sea-Waif Being Recollections of the First Four Years of My Sea Life by Frank T. Bullen
At four o'clock, while our Norwegian bark was just hull down, the gaff-topsail was taken in, a strong S.E. wind with rain having arisen.
From A Yacht Voyage to Norway, Denmark, and Sweden 2nd edition by William A. Ross
She carries a fore-and-aft main-sail, gaff-topsail, stay-foresail, and jib.
From The Sailor's Word-Book An Alphabetical Digest of Nautical Terms, including Some More Especially Military and Scientific, but Useful to Seamen; as well as Archaisms of Early Voyagers, etc. by Sir Edward Belcher
We did so, accordingly, rounding to under her stern, and ranging up alongside on her lee quarter; having first, however, taken in our gaff-topsail and lowered our topmast, so as not to foul her rigging.
From The Secret of the Sands The "Water Lily" and her Crew by Harry Collingwood
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.
