crowd sail
English
Verb
crowd sail (third-person singular simple present crowds sail, present participle crowding sail, simple past and past participle crowded sail)
- (nautical, dated, idiomatic) To carry an unusual amount of sail in an attempt to accelerate the speed of a vessel.
- 1827, William James, The Naval History of Great Britain […] :
- the Spaniards busied themselves in making the most of a sudden favourable change of wind, and, without much regard to order, were crowding sail to get near the land.
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References
- crowd in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913