spritsail

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Crank plank, split spritsail -- mark, sea's lark!

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Definitions (7)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. noun A quadrilateral sail extended by a spar running diagonally to the sail's peak.

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Examples (50)

  • In vain he pleaded for mercy; he was hauled out to the end of the spritsail-yard, when the miscreants commenced firing at him from the deck, and thus tortured him for twenty minutes before death put an end to his sufferings. —  How Britannia Came to Rule the Waves Updated to 1900
  • All hands were now employed in setting up the lee rigging, fishing the spritsail-yard, lashing the galley, and getting tackles upon the martingale, to bowse it to windward. —  Two Years Before the Mast
  • The head stays and guys, and the spritsail-yard, were lined, and, having still more, we got out the swinging booms, and strung them and the forward and after guys, with hides. —  Two Years Before the Mast
  • She must do better than that, thought I; and when I had eaten some dinner I took a chopper, and, going on to the forecastle, lay out upon the bowsprit, and after beating the spritsail-yard block clear of the ice, cut away the gaskets that confined the sail to the yard, heartily beating the canvas, that was like iron, till a clew of it fell. —  The Frozen Pirate
  • I expected to see the horns act like a spritsail-yard, and prevent its going down, but they went in also, and glided down his elastic and muscular inside without causing him any inconvenience! —  My First Voyage to Southern Seas
 

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/ˈsprɪtseɪl/
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