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
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.
brail (third-person singular simple present brails, present participle brailing, simple past and past participle brailed)
To reef, shorten or strike sail using brails.
• 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
22 February 2025
(noun) the use of closed-class words instead of inflections: e.g., ‘the father of the bride’ instead of ‘the bride’s father’
The earliest credible evidence of coffee-drinking as the modern beverage appeared in modern-day Yemen. In the middle of the 15th century in Sufi shrines where coffee seeds were first roasted and brewed for drinking. The Yemenis procured the coffee beans from the Ethiopian Highlands.
