mizzen
Americannoun
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a fore-and-aft sail set on a mizzenmast.
adjective
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of or relating to a mizzenmast.
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noting a sail, yard, boom, etc., or any rigging belonging to a mizzen lower mast or to some upper mast of a mizzenmast.
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noting any stay running aft and upward to the head of a mizzen lower mast or some specified upper mast of a mizzenmast.
mizzen topmast stay.
noun
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a sail set on a mizzenmast
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short for mizzenmast
adjective
Etymology
Origin of mizzen
1375–1425; late Middle English meson, mesan, probably < Italian mezzana
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.
I now have to keep fencing with Accrux while I have managed to throw your sword flying and getting stuck into the mizzen mast.
From Economist • Nov. 15, 2012
He lowers his mizzen and rejects her once again.
From Time Magazine Archive
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Isabel and the Sea will make even a coal miner imagine himself "running free under number-two jib, staysail, mainsail, and mizzen . . . setting course for the volcanic island of Stromboli."
From Time Magazine Archive
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The greatest living hero of the sea, 70-year-old Sir Francis Chichester sailed slowly back toward England under foresails and mizzen, his mainsail furled �out of the 54-ship transatlantic race that began June 17.
From Time Magazine Archive
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Then the wreck of the mizzen was cut away, and the frigate was taken in tow by the Agile, her own sails being left standing to relieve the strain on the hawsers.
From A Roving Commission Or, Through the Black Insurrection at Hayti by Henty, G. A. (George Alfred)
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.