brail
English edit
Etymology edit
From Middle English brayle, from Old French braiel, from Medieval Latin bracale (“girdle”) (from bracae (“breeches”)).
Pronunciation edit
Noun edit
brail (plural brails)
- (nautical) A small rope used to truss up sails.
- Synonym: brailing
- (falconry) A thong of soft leather to bind up a hawk's wing.
- A stock at each end of a seine to keep it stretched.
- (theater) A rope or line used to suspend lights or scenery in a certain position.
- (in the plural) The feathers around a hawk's rump.
Derived terms edit
Verb edit
brail (third-person singular simple present brails, present participle brailing, simple past and past participle brailed)
- 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 edit
- “brail”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
- 1728, Cyclopaedia, a publication in the public domain.
Anagrams edit
Middle English edit
Noun edit
brail
- Alternative form of brayle
Yola edit
Etymology edit
From earlier */bəˈɾiːɫ/ , itself from Middle English barayl, from Old French baril.
Pronunciation edit
Noun edit
brail (plural brailès)
References edit
- Jacob Poole (d. 1827) (before 1828) William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, published 1867, page 27