gybe
Americanverb (used without object)
verb
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(intr) (of a fore-and-aft sail) to shift suddenly from one side of the vessel to the other when running before the wind, as the result of allowing the wind to catch the leech
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to cause (a sailing vessel) to gybe or (of a sailing vessel) to undergo gybing
noun
Etymology
Origin of gybe
C17: from obsolete Dutch gijben (now gijpen ), of obscure origin
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:
The team said on Wednesday that Fisher had unclipped his tether and left the cockpit to tidy up a sheet when the boat went into an accidental crash gybe.
From Washington Times ● Mar. 28, 2018
Burling said he thought he could lay through the final gate and then gybe to the finish, but he misjudged it and had to make an extra maneuver, slowing the boat.
From Washington Times ● Jun. 12, 2017
It would take a small fraction of a minute to execute the latter manœuvre; and as the sails were now partially sheltered under the lee of the land, the bold skipper determined to gybe.
From The Yacht Club or The Young Boat-Builder by Optic, Oliver
The Phantom had to come about, and get on the right tack, for Guilford was too careful to gybe in that wind.
From The Yacht Club or The Young Boat-Builder by Optic, Oliver
In rounding the buoy, it was necessary to gybe again; and it was done without shaking up the yacht half so much as at the north-east point.
From The Yacht Club or The Young Boat-Builder by Optic, Oliver
Instead, it gybed in Luna Rossa’s wind shadow, lost speed and fell off its foils.
From Washington Times ● Mar. 17, 2021
Team New Zealand looked likely to roll Luna Rossa on the first downwind but, as the boats came level, gybed away in a failing breeze.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 14, 2021
A squall came down, the sail gybed quickly, and the boom slewed over with a jerk, just grazing the top of my head.
From A Poor Man's House by Reynolds, Stephen Sydney
When she marches in, I feel exactly as if the boat had gybed, and the boom come over and knocked me into thirty fathoms of water.
From The Lieutenant-Governor A Novel by Carryl, Guy Wetmore
The skipper had gybed the boat under the lee of Valcour's; but the wind was too fresh where he was now to repeat the manœuvre.
From All Adrift or The Goldwing Club by Optic, Oliver
First Team New Zealand dropped off its foils after gybing in Luna Rossa’s wind shadow and the Italian team sailed away to a massive advantage.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 15, 2021
By this time the wind had dropped to a gentle breeze on the port quarter, and there was no longer any risk of gybing.
From The Wireless Officer by Westerman, Percy F. (Percy Francis)
Mostyn, intent upon preventing the boat from gybing, had no opportunity of seeing the result of the shot.
From The Wireless Officer by Westerman, Percy F. (Percy Francis)
Bobtail ran to the west of the ledges, and, going entirely round to avoid gybing, he came up into the wind close under the stern of the Penobscot.
From Little Bobtail or The Wreck of the Penobscot. by Optic, Oliver
Putting a boat about, as Fanny had turned the Greyhound, is nautically termed gybing her.
From Hope and Have or, Fanny Grant Among the Indians, A Story for Young People by Optic, Oliver
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.
