Definify.com
Webster 1913 Edition
Brail
Brail
,Noun.
[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)
A thong of soft leather to bind up a hawk’s wing.
2.
pl.
(Naut.)
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
,Verb.
T.
(Naut.)
To haul up by the brails; – used with up;
as,
. to brail
up a sailWebster 1828 Edition
Brail
BRAIL
, n.1.
A piece of leather to bind up a hawk's wing.2.
In navigation, brails are ropes passing through pulleys,on the mizen mast and yard, and fastened to the aftmost leech of the sail in different places, to truss it up close. Also, all ropes employed to haul up the bottoms, lower corners and skirts of the other great sails, for the more ready furling of them.BRAIL
,Verb.
T.
Definition 2024
brail
brail
English
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.
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.
- 1993: The winds blew at their own caprice and there was brailing and loosing of canvas. — Anthony Burgess, A Dead Man in Deptford
References
- brail in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
- This article incorporates content from the 1728 Cyclopaedia, a publication in the public domain.
Anagrams
Yola
Noun
brail
References
- J. Poole W. Barnes, A Glossary, with Some Pieces of Verse, of the Old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy (1867)