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
Here Krantzius in the first place beginneth with such a gybe There be many notable things in their manners, &c.
From The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques and Discoveries of the English Nation — Volume 01 by Hakluyt, Richard
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
But the thread is cut between us and we will never gybe again, no, never—worlds without end.
From The Lions of the Lord A Tale of the Old West by Wilson, Harry Leon
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
The skipper put the helm up, and gybed the boat.
From All Adrift or The Goldwing Club by Optic, Oliver
Soon after we gybed, and for two or three hours knocked about in the most unpleasant manner.
From A Voyage in the 'Sunbeam' Our Home on the Ocean for Eleven Months by Brassey, Annie
While I was standing at the taffrail in admiration of this wonderful resource of nature, the main boom gybed and struck me with such force, that I was thrown into the sea.
From The Pacha of Many Tales by Marryat, Frederick
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)
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)
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.
