Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A single-masted, fore-and-aft-rigged sailing boat with a short standing bowsprit or none at all and a single headsail set from the forestay.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A small fore-and-aft rigged vessel with one mast, generally carrying a jib, fore-staysail, mainsail, and gafftopsail. Some sloops formerly had a square topsail. It is generally understood that a sloop differs from a cutter by having a fixed instead of a running bowsprit, but the names are used somewhat indiscriminately. In the days of sailing vessels, and of the earlier steam naval marine, now becoming obsolete, a sloop of war was a vessel of ship-rig carrying guns on the upper deck only, and rather smaller than a corvette. See also cut under
cutter . - n. In lumbering, a strong crutch of hard wood, with a strong bar across the limbs, used for drawing timber out of a swamp or inaccessible place.
- To draw (logs of timber) on a sloop.
Wiktionary
- n. nautical A single-masted sailboat with only one headsail.
- n. military A sailing warship, smaller than a frigate, with its guns all on one deck.
- n. a sloop of war, smaller than a frigate, larger than a corvette
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Naut.) A vessel having one mast and fore-and-aft rig, consisting of a boom-and-gaff mainsail, jibs, staysail, and gaff topsail. The typical sloop has a fixed bowsprit, topmast, and standing rigging, while those of a cutter are capable of being readily shifted. The sloop usually carries a centerboard, and depends for stability upon breadth of beam rather than depth of keel. The two types have rapidly approximated since 1880. One radical distinction is that a sloop may carry a centerboard. See cutter, and
Illustration in Appendix. - n. (Naut.) In modern usage, a sailing vessel having one mast, commonly with a Bermuda rig, with either a center-board or a keel. In the United States, a sloop may have one or two headsails, while in Western Europe and Great Britain a sloop has only one headsail.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a sailing vessel with a single mast set about one third of the boat's length aft of the bow
Etymologies
- From Dutch sloep, from Middle Dutch slœpen ("to glide"). (Wiktionary)
- Dutch sloep, from Middle Dutch slūpen, to glide. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“The Eidolon, moored at pier number one, the one closest to the sea, carried one square-rigged mast and whatever they called a sloop's mast.”
“On those lines it might be urged that whoever acquires a sloop is a pirate, whoever acquires a crowbar a burglar, whoever acquires a sword an assassin.”
“The sloop is a thirty-foot seaworthy Pearson that can sleep four, perfect for the Glendenning family, with a V-berth that can accommodate two up forward, and a port settee in the main salon that converts to a double berth.”
“The sloop was the Little Belt, the last of the British fleet to surrender, after a vain attempt to escape.”
“He was what we may call the sloop's husband, but was bound to do whatever Murray commanded, to ask no questions, and to be profoundly ignorant of the real objects of the expedition.”
“The sloop was a pretty craft, clinker built, and about the fastest sailing boat within miles of Cardhaven.”
“Mr. Dan Beard, the famous American artist and author, and an authority in such matters, thinks the sloop is the most graceful of all the single masters.”
“But before that happened the sloop was a thing of fire, from which explosions were hurling blazing combustibles aboard the Encarnacion, and long tongues of flame were licking out to consume the galleon, beating back those daring Spaniards who, too late, strove desperately to cut her adrift.”
“At the foot of the gangway of the "Baltimore" floated a boat from one of the British ships, and on the deck of the sloop was a lieutenant in British uniform in the act of mustering the American crew.”
“Fifteen men and boys sailed with him, drilled and disciplined as if the sloop were a frigate, and when the Experiment hauled into the stream, of”
The Old Merchant Marine; A chronicle of American ships and sailors
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘sloop’.
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Change one letter
Change one letter in the title of an existing book, and create an entirely new literary work. Add a one-sentence comment, describing the new work.
all the pretty ho..., the brothels kara..., caesar's garlic wars, the unbearable ti..., a heartbreaking w..., the good marrow, the right stiff, lady windermere's..., infinite pest, the cremains of t..., eyes on the pride, the spoils of boy... and 747 more...
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Words with two Os in them
theriomorphic, zoo, oberon, pool, tool, fool, cool, school, occlusion, operation, opioid, solenoid and 24 more...
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Out to Sea
If I had a boat
I'd go out on the ocean
And if I had a pony
I'd ride him on my boat
And we could all together
Go out on the ocean
Me upon my pony on my boat.boat, ship, skiff, barge, canoe, catamaran, yacht, scow, lifeboat, launch, ketch, dory and 303 more...
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Nautical Words
lubber, mizzenmast, circumnavigation, clipper, cordage, galleon, gangplank, gangway, flying bridge, following sea, schooner, amidships and 106 more...
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Just 'cause I like 'em, S
scrunch, solace, sabotage, saccade, sacerdotal, sacrilegious, sacristy, snappy, skew, steadfast, scowl, scorch and 781 more...
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Words Covered in Faery Dust (S)
words that evoke magic, mystery, mayhem, magnificence or anything else that glimmers in the grass
sabian symbols, saffron, sagacious, sage, salamander, sally lunn, salmon, salsify, salt water taffy, samhain, sand dollar, sandalwood and 270 more...
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parody's Words
defenestrate, behemoth, floss, macchiato, glom, emu, alpaca, crocheted, ampersand, charade, conflate, salacious and 193 more...
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Sound or sequence
dulcimer, borborygmi, ecchymosis, scrivener, fustilugs, zarf, bawdyhouse, googleable, archfiend, gymkhana, cuckoopint, pilpul and 104 more...
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colleen's words ii
sibilant, sundry, spindle, distaff, device, mortar, pestle, scythe, flail, thresh, frown, elementary and 495 more...
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the_grene_kni3t's Words
acuarela, sesquipedalian, capital, métier, chap, cove, guv, guv'nor, ratiocination, transatlantique, ineffable, aural and 142 more...
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pixistix's Words
cumquat, circumlocution, panoply, propinquity, contumely, quietus, fardel, tmesis, tipsy, giddy, trudge, vortex and 211 more...
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Whaleworthy & Piratical Words
A list of favorite nautical words to be sprinkled liberally throughout speech for piratical or Melvillian effect.
batten down, back and fill, beamy, baulking, beckets, bilge, bold shore, boomjumper, breaker, larboard, abaft, ash breeze and 156 more...
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mandarine's Words
antepenultimate, metonymy, synecdoche, pop, kern, inherit, clique, scrumptious, macerate, murmur, kerning, veranda and 1068 more...
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DYSLEXIC'S DREAD
Words That Make Sense in Reverse Too! Bad news for a dyslexic, 'cause s/he's got no clue if s/he read the word correctly or not, as opposed to a palindrome (i.e., no mistake possible, cf. "Dyslexic...
tool, lever, nap, pool, leer, leek, desserts, strop, doom, ukiah, yaws, ward and 213 more...
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Red Seas Under Red Skies
Words and phrase from Scott Lynch's book, Red Seas Under Red Skies.
legate, pugnacity, weevil, steady as a dry-d..., chit, sans, apprise, forfend, ken, expatriate, enclave, scrubs and 220 more...
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Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut
discovered while reading this book.
tendril, spiraea, political asylum, bristly, sordid, reel, garish, dulcitude, gait, charlatan, lapel, august and 96 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for sloop.
BrainyBabe Evelyn Waugh's lost novel, in which an incompetent nature writer is mistaken for a round-the-world yaughtsman, and more or less shanghai'd onto a small sailing boat which sets out for the Horn of Africa and never arrives. Dec 23, 2008
oroboros Pools in reverse. Jul 22, 2007