sail
IPA: sˈeɪɫ
noun
- (nautical) A piece of fabric attached to a boat and arranged such that it causes the wind to drive the boat along. The sail may be attached to the boat via a combination of mast, spars and ropes.
- (nautical, uncountable) The concept of a sail or sails, as if a substance.
- (uncountable) The power harnessed by a sail or sails, or the use of this power for travel or transport.
- A trip in a boat, especially a sailboat.
- (dated, plural "sail") A sailing vessel; a vessel of any kind; a craft.
- (nautical) The conning tower of a submarine.
- The blade of a windmill.
- A tower-like structure found on the dorsal (topside) surface of submarines.
- The floating organ of siphonophores, such as the Portuguese man-of-war.
- (fishing) A sailfish.
- (paleontology) an outward projection of the spine, occurring in certain dinosaurs and synapsids
- Anything resembling a sail, such as a wing.
- Acronym of snow avalanche impact landform.
verb
- To be impelled or driven forward by the action of wind upon sails, as a ship on water; to be impelled on a body of water by steam or other power.
- To move through or on the water; to swim, as a fish or a waterfowl.
- To ride in a boat, especially a sailboat.
- (intransitive) To set sail; to begin a voyage.
- To move briskly and gracefully through the air.
- (intransitive) To move briskly but sedately.
- (card games, transitive) To deal out (cards) from a distance by impelling them across a surface.
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Examples of "sail" in Sentences
- I'd like to know how large the sail is when it's unfurled.
- Aboard ship, Dana discovers that to sail is to tread the line between life and death.
- "Then the sky narrowed at the edges and he began screaming at a panicky squire, "Back sail, _back sail_!"
- Andrés de Urdaneta sets sail from the Philippine Islands on what eventually becomes recognized as a landmark voyage in sailing history.
- Steering the sail is akin to steering a paraglider or parachute — the “autopilot” pod flying just under the kite shortens one side to dump wind and turn.
- I think that he had never been entirely reconciled to the heathenish invention which I called a sail, and that down in the bottom of his heart he believed that the paddlers would eventually overhaul us; but now he couldn't praise it enough.
- It is no slight matter for two men, particularly when a stiff wind has sprung up, to handle a vessel like the Ghost, steering, keeping look-out for the boats, and setting or taking in sail; so it devolved upon me to learn, and learn quickly.
- "Then," said Mr. Hall, "I should think, on the whole, that, in such a place as this, where there are so many regular sail boats, and where excursions on the lake in them are so common and so well recognized as a distinct amusement, the phrase _taking a sail_ ought to be held to mean going in a sail boat, and that making a voyage in a steamer would not be fulfilling the promise."
- What would stop Israel from setting up an investigation into complicty of the Turkish government in a premeditated armed attack on IDF commandoes by armed mercenaries and militants linked to known terrorist groups, who set sail from a Turkish port with the goal of breaking an Israeli blockade, and chanting “Khyber, khyber, beware O Jews”, and “Go back to Auschwitz” and various slogans glorifying jihad and martyrdom?
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