skysail

American  

[skahy-sayl, skahy-suhl] / ˈskaɪˌseɪl, ˈskaɪ səl /

noun

Nautical.

1. (in a square-rigged vessel) a light square sail next above the royal.

2. a triangular sail set on a stay between the fore and main trucks of a racing schooner.

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skysail British  

/ ˈskaɪˌseɪl /

noun

1. a square sail set above the royal on a square-rigger

2. a triangular sail set between the trucks of a racing schooner

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Etymology

Origin of skysail

First recorded in 1820–30; sky + sail

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

skysail

But seldom had he dared dream of touching this uppermost skysail of influence.

From Time Magazine Archive

The inside was then painted, from the skysail truck to the waterways,— the yards, black; mast-heads and tops, white; monkey-rail, black, white, and yellow; bulwarks, green; plank-shear, white; waterways, lead-color, &c., &c.

From Two Years Before the Mast by Richard Henry Dana

But I shall not believe in them till I see them; a skysail seems high enough in all conscience; and the idea of any thing higher than that, seems preposterous.

From Redburn. His First Voyage by Herman Melville

The inside was then painted, from the skysail truck to the waterways—the yards black; mast-heads and tops, white; monkey-rail, black, white, and yellow; bulwarks, green; plank-shear, white; waterways, lead color, etc., etc.

From Two Years Before the Mast by Richard Henry Dana

Three cheers burst from our gallant crew, as they saw her small masts first bend, then fall forward together before the foretopsail, dragging with them the main-royal and skysail masts.

From Wilson's Tales of the Borders and of Scotland Volume 10 by Various

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