spritsail
Americannoun
noun
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a rectangular sail mounted on a sprit in some 19th-century small vessels
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(in medieval rigging) a square sail mounted on a yard on the bowsprit
Etymology
Origin of spritsail
1425–75; late Middle English sprete seyle ( see sprit, sail); compare Dutch sprietzeil
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.
The spritsail would then be furled, and the spritsail-yard brought alongship.
From On the Spanish Main Or, Some English forays on the Isthmus of Darien. by Masefield, John
The foremast had a square foresail, the mainmast a mainsail and maintopsail, and there was a spritsail on the bowsprit.
From Christopher Columbus and His Monument Columbia being a concordance of choice tributes to the great Genoese, his grand discovery, and his greatness of mind and purpose by Dickey, J. M. (John Marcus)
I concluded to take a boat, and procured of Frank Stanley a little row-boat, with a spritsail for running before the wind; for I intended to choose my own time for crossing.
From Adrift in the Ice-Fields by Hall, Charles W.
Out of this well forked the bowsprit, with the spritsail yard braced fore and aft.
From The Frozen Pirate by Russell, W. Clark (William Clark)
Whereupon we cast off and hoisted the spritsail.
From Tales of the Fish Patrol by Varian, George
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.
