taffrail

[ taf-reyl, -ruh l ]

/ ˈtæfˌreɪl, -rəl /

noun Nautical.

the upper part of the stern of a ship.

a rail above the stern of a ship.

Nearby words

Origin of taffrail

1805–15; syncopated variant of taffarel; -ai- spelling Dutch -ee-

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

Examples from the Web for taffrail

Observing his daughter Ada to be standing alone at the taffrail, he accosted her.
A Tale of Two Tunnels|William Clark Russell
Monsieur de Fontanges carved his way to the taffrail, and then turned round to kill again.
Newton Forster|Captain Frederick Marryat
I watched them from the taffrail, and soon ascertained that Marble was doing the same from the windows below me.
Afloat And Ashore|James Fenimore Cooper
No guns frowning through the port-holes, no pikes hung in the gangway, nothing from cut-water to taffrail to suggest atrocity.
New Tabernacle Sermons|Thomas De Witt Talmage

They are seized in strong arms; and half-dragged, half-lifted off their feet, hurried away from the taffrail.
The Flag of Distress|Mayne Reid

British Dictionary definitions for taffrail

taffrail

/ (ˈtæfˌreɪl) /

noun nautical

a rail at the stern or above the transom of a vessel

the upper part of the transom of a vessel, esp a sailing vessel, often ornately decorated

Word Origin for taffrail

C19: changed (through influence of rail 1) from earlier tafferel, from Dutch taffereel panel (hence applied to the part of a vessel decorated with carved panels), variant of tafeleel (unattested), from tafel table

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

Word Origin and History for taffrail

taffrail

1814, alteration of tafferel "upper panel on the stern of a ship (often ornamented)" (1704), earlier, "a carved panel" (1620s), from Dutch tafereel "panel for painting or carving," dissimulation from *tafeleel, diminutive of tafel "table," from the general West Germanic borrowing of Latin tabula "slab, board" (see table (n.)). The word developed in Dutch from the custom of ornamenting the high, flat stern of old sailing ships; spelling and sense altered in English by influence of rail (n.).