Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Nautical, to tack (a ship) when in danger of missing stays and drifting ashore, by letting go the lee anchor as soon as the ship's head comes into the wind, and then causing the vessel to pay off in the right direction by hauling on a hawser previously attached to the anchor and led in on the lee quarter. The hawser is then cut, and, the sails being trimmed, the ship stands off on the new tack.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb (Naut.) To put on the other tack by dropping the lee anchor as soon as the wind is out of the sails (which brings the vessel's head to the wind), and by cutting the cable as soon as she pays off on the other tack. Clubhauling is attempted only in an exigency.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb transitive, nautical To force a sailing vessel to change tack by dropping the lee-anchor and hauling in the anchor cable to swing the stern to windward.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

The name is derived from nautical clubbing (dragging an anchor along the seabed) and hauling (changing direction).

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Examples

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