MAINSAIL

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does mainsail mean? 

• MAINSAIL (noun)
  The noun MAINSAIL has 1 sense:

1. the lowermost sail on the mainmast

  Familiarity information: MAINSAIL used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• MAINSAIL (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The lowermost sail on the mainmast

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("mainsail" is a kind of...):

canvas; canvass; sail; sheet (a large piece of fabric (usually canvas fabric) by means of which wind is used to propel a sailing vessel)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "mainsail"):

main course (a square mainsail)

 Context examples 

Better reef the jib and mainsail too, while you’re about it.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

These once aboard, the ship set her broad mainsail, purple in color, and with a golden St. Christopher bearing Christ upon his shoulder in the centre of it.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I was on the lee side of the forecastle, and the mainsail, which was still drawing, concealed from me a certain portion of the after-deck.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

By means of deck-tackles I had arranged to carry the halyards forward to the windlass; and now I hoisted the mainsail, peak and throat, at the same time.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

When the two vessels were half-a-mile apart, a third shot made another hole in our mainsail.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

Though the rest of her sails were gone, the jib, backed to windward, and the mainsail hauled down flat, were themselves holding, and holding her bow to the furious sea as well.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

Two hours of terrible work followed, in which all hands of us—two hunters, three sailors, Wolf Larsen and I—reefed, first one and then the other, the jib and mainsail.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

A puff of smoke broke from the Macedonia’s deck, we heard a heavy report, and a round hole took form in the stretched canvas of our mainsail.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

Then, in desperation, I abandoned the attempt to reef the mainsail and resolved to try the experiment of heaving to under the close-reefed foresail.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

There were only three—the jib, foresail, and mainsail; and, patched, shortened, and distorted, they were a ridiculously ill-fitting suit for so trim a craft as the Ghost.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)