staysail

[ stey-seyl; Nautical stey-suhl ]

nounNautical.
  1. any sail set on a stay, as a triangular sail between two masts.

Origin of staysail

1
First recorded in 1660–70; stay3 + sail

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use staysail in a sentence

  • He could see the Cashmere run out her lower studding-sails and her staysails, to take advantage of the rising wind.

    Toilers of the Sea | Victor Hugo
  • The only canvas she had set was a close-reefed main-topsail, and two small storm-staysails, one forward and the other aft.

    The Pathfinder | James Fenimore Cooper
  • These staysails take their names from the stays on which they run.

  • Large square-rigged vessels have sails for the express purpose, called storm-staysails.

  • It must be remembered that we all had everything on, even to balloon and staysails, and our halyards were lashed aloft.

    The Seiners | James B. (James Brendan) Connolly

British Dictionary definitions for staysail

staysail

/ (ˈsteɪˌseɪl, ˈsteɪsəl) nautical /


noun
  1. an auxiliary sail, often triangular, set to catch the wind, as between the masts of a yawl (mizzen staysail), aft of a spinnaker (spinnaker staysail), etc

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012