brail

English

Etymology

From Middle English brayle, from Old French braiel, from Medieval Latin bracale (“girdle”) (from bracae (“breeches”)).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bɹeɪl/
• Rhymes: -eɪl

Noun

brail (plural brails)

1. (nautical) A small rope used to truss up sails.
2. (falconry) A thong of soft leather to bind up a hawk's wing.
3. A stock at each end of a seine to keep it stretched.
4. (in the plural) The feathers around a hawk's rump.

Verb

brail (third-person singular simple present brails, present participle brailing, simple past and past participle brailed)

1. To reef, shorten or strike sail using brails.
   • 1993, Anthony Burgess, A Dead Man in Deptford:

     The winds blew at their own caprice and there was brailing and loosing of canvas.

References

• “brail”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• Template:1728

Anagrams

• Arbil, Baril, Blair, Bliar, Libra, libra

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Middle English

Noun

brail

1. Alternative form of brayle

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Yola

Noun

brail

1. barrel

References

• J. Poole W. Barnes, A Glossary, with Some Pieces of Verse, of the Old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy (1867)