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
A nautical entertainment had been fixed for 6 p.m.; but unfortunately that hour was selected to gybe the ship, so that it was 6.30 before261 the entertainment commenced.
From The Last Voyage to India and Australia, in the 'Sunbeam' by Pritchett, R. T. (Robert Taylor)
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 variation, trifling as it was, brought the wind on the opposite quarter, and caused the boom that distended her mainsail to gybe.
From The Water-Witch or, the Skimmer of the Seas by Cooper, James Fenimore
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
When our mainsheet parted the boom gybed so hard that it opened a seam.
From Wings of the Wind by Harris, Credo Fitch
The second mark will have to be gybed around.
From Harper's Round Table, September 3, 1895 by Various
And th' end was the larboard halyards broke, an' the mare gybed, an' to Torrington I went before the wind, wi' an unseemly bloody nose.
From The Splendid Spur by Quiller-Couch, Arthur Thomas, Sir
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
In a heavy gale, Provident of Brixham risks her mast and gear, gybing to close the sinking pinnace of the torpedoed Formidable, and rescue the exhausted seventy-one men who crowded her.
From Merchantmen-at-arms : the British merchants' service in the war by Bone, David W. (David William)
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
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)
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.
