Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Being, relating to, or rigged with a triangular sail hung on a long yard that is attached at an angle to the top of a short mast.
  • noun A lateen-rigged boat.
  • noun A lateen sail.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Literally, Latin: a word used only in lateen sail, lateen yard, lateen rig. Also spelled latteen.

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

  • adjective (Naut.) Of or pertaining to a peculiar rig used in the Mediterranean and adjacent waters, esp. on the northern coast of Africa; pertaining to a lateen sail. See below.
  • adjective rigged with a triangular (lateen sail).

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

  • noun nautical A triangular fore-and-aft sail set on a boom in such way that the tack is attached to the hull of the vessel and the free end of the boom lifts the sail.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a triangular fore-and-aft sail used especially in the Mediterranean
  • adjective rigged with a triangular (lateen) sail

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[French (voile) latine, lateen (sail), feminine of latin, Latin (from its use in the Mediterranean), from Old French; see Latin.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

French latine ("Latin")

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Examples

Comments

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  • "There were a fair number of country craft moving in and out in the morning light, tunny-boats and coral-fishers: and two corsair-xebecs with immense black lateen sails passed the Worcester on the opposite tack, low to the water, moving very fast."

    —Patrick O'Brian, The Ionian Mission, 178

    February 14, 2008

  • "Lateen-sails, are triangular sails, frequently used by xebecs, polacres, settees, and other vessels navigated in the Mediterranean seas."

    Falconer's New Universal Dictionary of the Marine (1816), 215

    October 11, 2008