sailing ship

American

noun

a large ship equipped with sails.

sailing ship British

noun

a large sailing vessel

"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

Etymology

Origin of sailing ship

First recorded in 1880–85

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.

A historic Clydebuilt sailing ship has been towed out to sea off the coast of Hawaii and deliberately sunk, prompting outrage from maritime conservation groups.

From BBC • Oct. 18, 2025

At Athens’ port of Piraeus it will board the Belem, a French three-masted sailing ship — built in 1896 — to be transported to France.

From Seattle Times • Apr. 19, 2024

The idea began when Hay saw an etching of a 19th-century sailing ship in a Fiji museum.

From Science Daily • Feb. 26, 2024

Among them was a sailing ship named Trinidad that sank in Lake Michigan about 150 years ago.

From DOGO News • Sep. 27, 2023

He imagines two observers in a field pacing out the distance between them, then leveling their eyes on a far-off landmark: a sailing ship or a smokestack.

From "All the Light We Cannot See" by Anthony Doerr

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023