What does sail mean?

Definitions for sail
seɪlsail

This dictionary definitions page includes all the possible meanings, example usage and translations of the word sail.

Princeton's WordNet

  1. sail, canvas, canvass, sheetnoun

    a large piece of fabric (usually canvas fabric) by means of which wind is used to propel a sailing vessel

  2. cruise, sailnoun

    an ocean trip taken for pleasure

  3. sailverb

    any structure that resembles a sail

  4. sailverb

    traverse or travel on (a body of water)

    "We sailed the Atlantic"; "He sailed the Pacific all alone"

  5. sweep, sailverb

    move with sweeping, effortless, gliding motions

    "The diva swept into the room"; "Shreds of paper sailed through the air"; "The searchlights swept across the sky"

  6. sailverb

    travel on water propelled by wind

    "I love sailing, especially on the open sea"; "the ship sails on"

  7. voyage, sail, navigateverb

    travel on water propelled by wind or by other means

    "The QE2 will sail to Southampton tomorrow"

Samuel Johnson's Dictionary

  1. SAILnoun

    Etymology: segl , Saxon; seyhel, seyl, Dutch.

    He came too late; the ship was under sail. William Shakespeare.

    They loosed the rudder-bands, and hoised up the main sail to the wind. Acts xxvii. 40.

    The galley born from view by rising gales,
    She follow’d with her sight and flying sails. Dryden.

    He cutting way
    With his broad sails, about him soared round;
    At last, low stooping with unwieldy sway,
    Snatch’d up both horse and man. Fairy Queen.

    A sail arriv’d
    From Pompey’s son, who through the realms of Spain
    Calls out for vengeance on his father’s death. Joseph Addison, Cato.

    So by a roaring tempest on the flood,
    A whole armado of collected sail
    Is scatter’d. William Shakespeare.

    It is written of Edgar, that he increased the fleet he found two thousand six hundred sail. Walter Raleigh, Essays.

    A feigned tear destroys us, against whom
    Tydides nor Achilles could prevail,
    Nor ten years conflict, nor a thousand sail. John Denham.

    He had promised to his army, who were discouraged at the sight of Seleucus’s fleet, consisting of an hundred sail, that at the end of the Summer they should see a fleet of his of five hundred sail. John Arbuthnot, on Coins.

    Fearing lest they should fall into the quicksands, they strake sail, and so were driven. Acts xxvii. 17.

    Margaret
    Must strike her sail, and learn a while to serve
    Where kings command. William Shakespeare, Henry VI.

  2. To Sailverb

    A thousand ships were mann’d to sail the sea. Dryden.

    View Alcinous’ groves, from whence
    Sailing the spaces of the boundless deep,
    To Ariconium precious fruits arriv’d. Phillips.

    Sublime she sails
    Th’ aerial space, and mounts the winged gales. Alexander Pope.

  3. To Sailverb

    Etymology: from the noun.

    I shall not mention any thing of the sailing waggons. John Mortimer.

    When sailing was now dangerous, Paul admonished them. Acts.

    To which the stores of Crœsus, in the scale,
    Would look like little dolphins, when they sail
    In the vast shadow of the British whale. Dryden.

    Speak again, bright angel! for thou art
    As glorious to this sight, being o’er my head,
    As is a winged messenger from heav’n,
    When he bestrides the lazy pacing clouds,
    And sails upon the bosom of the air. William Shakespeare, Rom. and Jul.

Wikipedia

  1. Sail

    Sail is a song by American rock band AWOLNATION. It was released as a single on November 8, 2010. The song was first featured on the band's debut extended play, Back from Earth (2010), and was later featured on their debut album, Megalithic Symphony (2011). The song was written and produced in Venice, California by group member Aaron Bruno, with Kenny Carkeet performing the audio engineering. "Sail" is the band's most commercially successful song to date. It debuted at number 89 on the United States Billboard Hot 100 chart in September 2011, spending 20 weeks on the chart before dropping out. The single re-entered the Hot 100 a year later, becoming a massive sleeper hit and reaching a new peak of number 17. "Sail" is the first song to climb to its peak after a year on the Hot 100. It has spent the longest time inside the Billboard Hot 100 chart with 79 weeks, only surpassed by Imagine Dragons' "Radioactive" with 87 weeks.

ChatGPT

  1. sail

    A sail is a piece of material extended on a mast to catch the wind and propel a boat, ship or other vessel on water. It is also used to define the act of traveling or moving smoothly or quickly. Moreover, it can refer to a trip or journey on a body of water, like ocean, sea, or lake, in a vessel with sails.

Webster Dictionary

  1. Sailnoun

    an extent of canvas or other fabric by means of which the wind is made serviceable as a power for propelling vessels through the water

  2. Sailnoun

    anything resembling a sail, or regarded as a sail

  3. Sailnoun

    a wing; a van

  4. Sailnoun

    the extended surface of the arm of a windmill

  5. Sailnoun

    a sailing vessel; a vessel of any kind; a craft

  6. Sailnoun

    a passage by a sailing vessel; a journey or excursion upon the water

  7. Sailnoun

    to be impelled or driven forward by the action of wind upon sails, as a ship on water; to be impelled on a body of water by the action of steam or other power

  8. Sailnoun

    to move through or on the water; to swim, as a fish or a water fowl

  9. Sailnoun

    to be conveyed in a vessel on water; to pass by water; as, they sailed from London to Canton

  10. Sailnoun

    to set sail; to begin a voyage

  11. Sailnoun

    to move smoothly through the air; to glide through the air without apparent exertion, as a bird

  12. Sailverb

    to pass or move upon, as in a ship, by means of sails; hence, to move or journey upon (the water) by means of steam or other force

  13. Sailverb

    to fly through; to glide or move smoothly through

  14. Sailverb

    to direct or manage the motion of, as a vessel; as, to sail one's own ship

  15. Etymology: [OE. seil, AS. segel, segl; akin to D. zeil, OHG. segal, G. & Sw. segel, Icel. segl, Dan. seil. 153.]

Wikidata

  1. Sail

    A sail is a surface, typically made of fabric and supported by a mast, whose purpose is to propel a sailing vessel. Occasionally sails may also be found on land vehicles.

Chambers 20th Century Dictionary

  1. Sail

    sāl, n. a sheet of canvas, &c., spread to catch the wind, by which a ship is driven forward: a ship or ships: a trip in a vessel: a fleet: arm of a windmill: speed: a journey.—v.i. to be moved by sails: to go by water: to begin a voyage: to glide or float smoothly along.—v.t. to navigate: to pass in a ship: to fly through.—adj. Sail′able, navigable.—n. Sail′-boat, a boat propelled by a sail.—adjs. Sail′-borne; Sail′-broad (Milt.), broad or spreading like a sail.—n. Sail′-cloth, a strong cloth for sails.—adj. Sailed, having sails set.—ns. Sail′er, a sailor: a boat or ship with respect to its mode of sailing, or its speed; Sail′-fish, the basking shark: the quill-back; Sail′-fluke, the whiff; Sail′-hoop, a mast-hoop; Sail′ing, act of sailing: motion of a vessel on water: act of directing a ship's course: the term applied to the different ways in which the path of a ship at sea, and the variations of its geographical position, are represented on paper, as great circle sailing, Mercator's sailing, middle latitude sailing, oblique sailing, parallel sailing, plane sailing; Sail′ing-ice, an ice-pack through which a sailing-vessel can force her way.—n.pl. Sail′ing-instruc′tions, written directions by the officer of a convoy to the masters of ships under his care.—n. Sail′ing-mas′ter, a former name for the navigating officer of a war-ship.—adj. Sail′less, destitute of sails.—ns. Sail′-liz′ard, a large lizard having a crested tail; Sail′-loft, a loft where sails are cut out and made; Sail′-māk′er, a maker of sails: in the United States navy, an officer who takes charge of the sails; Sail′or, one who sails in or navigates a ship: a seaman; Sail′or-fish, a sword-fish; Sail′or-man, a seaman; Sail′or-plant, the strawberry geranium; Sail′or's-choice, the pin-fish: the pig-fish; Sail′or's-purse, an egg-pouch of rays and sharks; Sail′-room, a room in a vessel where sails are stowed.—adj. Sail′y, like a sail.—n. Sail′-yard, the yard on which sails are extended.—n.pl. Stay′-sails, triangular sails, suspended on the ropes which stay the masts upon the foresides—from the jib-boom, bowsprit, and deck in the case of the foremast, and from the deck in the case of the mainmast.—Sail close to the wind, to run great risk; Sailors' Home, an institution where sailors may lodge, or aged and infirm sailors be permanently cared for.—After sail, the sails carried on the mainmast and mizzen-mast; Fore-and-aft sails, those set parallel to the keel of a ship, as opp. to Square sails, those set across the ship; Full Sail, with all sails set; Make sail, to spread more canvas, in sailing; Set sail, to spread the sails, to begin a voyage; Shorten sail, to reduce its extent; Strike sail, to lower the sail or sails: (Shak.) to abate one's pretensions of pomp or superiority; Take the wind out of one's sails, to deprive one of an advantage; Under sail, having the sails spread. [A.S. segel, cf. Dut. zeil, Ger. segel.]

The New Hacker's Dictionary

  1. SAIL

    1. The Stanford Artificial Intelligence Lab. An important site in the early development of LISP; with the MIT AI Lab, BBN, CMU, XEROX PARC, and the Unix community, one of the major wellsprings of technical innovation and hacker-culture traditions (see the WAITS entry for details). The SAIL machines were shut down in late May 1990, scant weeks after the MIT AI Lab's ITS cluster was officially decommissioned. 2. The Stanford Artificial Intelligence Language used at SAIL (sense 1). It was an Algol-60 derivative with a coroutining facility and some new data types intended for building search trees and association lists.

Dictionary of Nautical Terms

  1. sail

    The terms applicable to the parts of a sail comprise:--Seaming the cloths together; cutting the gores; tabling and sewing on the reef, belly, lining, and buntline bands, roping, and marling on the clues and foot-rope. The square sails comprise courses, top-sails, topgallant-sails, royals, skysails on each mast. The fore and aft, are jibs, staysails, trysails, boom main-sails and fore-sails, gaff top-sails, to which may be added the studding-sails and the flying kites. Also, a distant ship is called a sail.

Editors Contribution

  1. sail

    A type of product for a boat.

    The boat had a beautiful sail with silver colors.


    Submitted by MaryC on March 9, 2020  


  2. sail

    To direct, manage and review the movement of a boat, ship, ferry or type of vessel.

    They sail from the port and the ferry is an easy journey.


    Submitted by MaryC on April 17, 2020  

Suggested Resources

  1. SAIL

    What does SAIL stand for? -- Explore the various meanings for the SAIL acronym on the Abbreviations.com website.

British National Corpus

  1. Nouns Frequency

    Rank popularity for the word 'sail' in Nouns Frequency: #2740

  2. Verbs Frequency

    Rank popularity for the word 'sail' in Verbs Frequency: #601

Anagrams for sail »

  1. lasi

  2. lias

  3. lisa

  4. sial

How to pronounce sail?

How to say sail in sign language?

Numerology

  1. Chaldean Numerology

    The numerical value of sail in Chaldean Numerology is: 8

  2. Pythagorean Numerology

    The numerical value of sail in Pythagorean Numerology is: 5

Examples of sail in a Sentence

  1. Lakshheish M Patel:

    If this southward declining trend of Indian Stock Market continues even after 17-19th May then the share price of SAIL Steel Authority Of India may reach Rs.55 or even Rs 50 by the end of May month.

  2. Cui Tiankai:

    These missions are designed to maintain readiness and demonstrate our commitment to fly, sail and operate anywhere allowed under international law.

  3. Louisa May Alcott:

    I am not afraid of storms, for I am learning to sail my ship.

  4. H. Jackson Brown Jr.:

    Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.

  5. Karan Singh:

    Such queries mean the deal is being closely scrutinized and could face potential delays, but it can eventually sail through if no antitrust concerns are found.

Popularity rank by frequency of use

sail#1#9767#10000

Translations for sail

From our Multilingual Translation Dictionary

Get even more translations for sail »

Translation

Find a translation for the sail definition in other languages:

Select another language:

  • - Select -
  • 简体中文 (Chinese - Simplified)
  • 繁體中文 (Chinese - Traditional)
  • Español (Spanish)
  • Esperanto (Esperanto)
  • 日本語 (Japanese)
  • Português (Portuguese)
  • Deutsch (German)
  • العربية (Arabic)
  • Français (French)
  • Русский (Russian)
  • ಕನ್ನಡ (Kannada)
  • 한국어 (Korean)
  • עברית (Hebrew)
  • Gaeilge (Irish)
  • Українська (Ukrainian)
  • اردو (Urdu)
  • Magyar (Hungarian)
  • मानक हिन्दी (Hindi)
  • Indonesia (Indonesian)
  • Italiano (Italian)
  • தமிழ் (Tamil)
  • Türkçe (Turkish)
  • తెలుగు (Telugu)
  • ภาษาไทย (Thai)
  • Tiếng Việt (Vietnamese)
  • Čeština (Czech)
  • Polski (Polish)
  • Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian)
  • Românește (Romanian)
  • Nederlands (Dutch)
  • Ελληνικά (Greek)
  • Latinum (Latin)
  • Svenska (Swedish)
  • Dansk (Danish)
  • Suomi (Finnish)
  • فارسی (Persian)
  • ייִדיש (Yiddish)
  • հայերեն (Armenian)
  • Norsk (Norwegian)
  • English (English)

Word of the Day

Would you like us to send you a FREE new word definition delivered to your inbox daily?

Please enter your email address:


Citation

Use the citation below to add this definition to your bibliography:

Style:MLAChicagoAPA

"sail." Definitions.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 18 Mar. 2024. <https://www.definitions.net/definition/sail>.

Discuss these sail definitions with the community:

0 Comments

    Are we missing a good definition for sail? Don't keep it to yourself...

    Image or illustration of

    sail

    Credit »

    Free, no signup required:

    Add to Chrome

    Get instant definitions for any word that hits you anywhere on the web!

    Free, no signup required:

    Add to Firefox

    Get instant definitions for any word that hits you anywhere on the web!

    Browse Definitions.net

    Quiz

    Are you a words master?

    »
    go on board
    A observe
    B acclaim
    C distinguish
    D embark

    Nearby & related entries:

    Alternative searches for sail: