brail
English
Etymology
From Middle English brayle, from Old French braiel, from Medieval Latin bracale (“girdle”) (from bracae (“breeches”)).
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /bɹeɪl/
- Rhymes: -eɪl
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.
- (in the plural) The feathers around a hawk's rump.
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, Anthony Burgess, A Dead Man in Deptford
- The winds blew at their own caprice and there was brailing and loosing of canvas.
- 1993, 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
- Arbil, Baril, Blair, Bliar, Libra, libra
Middle English
Noun
brail
- Alternative form of brayle
Yola
Noun
brail
- barrel
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)