TOPSAIL

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does topsail mean? 

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

1. a sail (or either of a pair of sails) immediately above the lowermost sail of a mast and supported by a topmast

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

 Dictionary entry details 

• TOPSAIL (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A sail (or either of a pair of sails) immediately above the lowermost sail of a mast and supported by a topmast

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("topsail" 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 "topsail"):

fore-topsail (the topsail on a foremast)

 Context examples 

He was still a sick man, and I more than once observed him creeping painfully aloft to a topsail, or drooping wearily as he stood at the wheel.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

The seaman had no love of cities, and was happier wandering over the Downs, and turning his glass upon every topsail which showed above the horizon, than when finding his way among crowded streets, where, as he complained, it was impossible to keep a course by the sun, and hard enough by dead reckoning.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

In the light baffling airs the schooner had been tacking about a great deal, at which times the sails pass from one side to the other and a man is sent aloft to shift over the fore-gaff-topsail.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

The foresail and fore-topsail, emptied of the wind by the manœuvre, and with no one to bring in the sheet in time, were thundering into ribbons, the heavy boom threshing and splintering from rail to rail.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)