main-topsail

[meyn-top-seyl; Nautical meyn-top-suh l]

noun Nautical.

a topsail set on the mainmast.

Origin of main-topsail

First recorded in 1610–20

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for maintopsail

Historical Examples of maintopsail

The foresail was still standing, also half of the maintopsail.
Grace Darling
Eva Hope
Her commander ordered the brig's maintopsail to be hove to the mast.
The Story of Commodore John Barry
Martin Griffin
The musket was fired, and the brig came to the wind with her maintopsail to the mast.
Bentley's Miscellany, Volume II
Various
The Guerriere backed her maintopsail and waited for the American to commence the action.
The Cruise of the "Lively Bee"
John De Morgan
Towards Noon it moderated, so that we could bear our Maintopsail close Reefd.
Captain Cook's Journal During the First Voyage Round the World
James Cook

British Dictionary definitions for maintopsail

maintopsail

noun

nautical a topsail set on the mainmast

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012