BRAIL

brail

(noun) a small rope (one of several) used to draw a sail in

brail

(noun) a small net used to draw fish into a boat

brail

(verb) haul fish aboard with brails

brail

(verb) take in a sail with a brail

Source: WordNet® 3.1


Etymology

Noun

brail (plural brails)

(nautical) A small rope used to truss up sails.

(falconry) A thong of soft leather to bind up a hawk's wing.

A stock at each end of a seine to keep it stretched.

(in the plural) The feathers around a hawk's rump.

Verb

brail (third-person singular simple present brails, present participle brailing, simple past and past participle brailed)

To reef, shorten or strike sail using brails.

Anagrams

• Arbil, Baril, Blair, Bliar, Libra, Rabil, libra

Source: Wiktionary


Brail, n. Etym: [OE. brayle furling rope, OF. braiol a band placed around the breeches, fr.F. braies, pl., breeches, fr.L. braca, bracae, breeches, a Gallic word; cf. Arm. bragez. Cf. Breeches.]

1. (Falconry)

Definition: A thong of soft leather to bind up a hawk's wing.

2. pl. (Naut.)

Definition: Ropes passing through pulleys, and used to haul in or up the leeches, bottoms, or corners of sails, preparatory to furling.

3. A stock at each end of a seine to keep it stretched.

Brail, v. t. (Naut.)

Definition: To haul up by the brails; -- used with up; as, to brail up a sail.

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition



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Word of the Day

26 April 2024

CITYSCAPE

(noun) a viewpoint toward a city or other heavily populated area; “the dominant character of the cityscape is it poverty”


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Coffee Trivia

The Boston Tea Party helped popularize coffee in America. The hefty tea tax imposed on the colonies in 1773 resulted in America switching from tea to coffee. In the lead up to the Revolutionary War, it became patriotic to sip java instead of tea. The Civil War made the drink more pervasive. Coffee helped energize tired troops, and drinking it became an expression of freedom.

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