Sail Meaning
/seɪl/Definition, CEFR level A2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounA piece of fabric attached to a boat and arranged such that it causes the wind to drive the boat along. The sail may be attached to the boat via a combination of mast, spars and ropes.
nounThe concept of a sail or sails, as if a substance.
Sentence Examples
The sail tightened in the strong wind.
We began to sail in the direction of the port.
We watched the white sail disappear over the horizon.
CEFR Practice Quiz
After raising the canvas and filling it with wind, the ship will ____ to the next island.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The yacht began to ____ smoothly across the bay as the wind picked up speed.
Word Origin & History
From Middle English saile, sayle, seil, seyl, from Old English seġl, from Proto-West Germanic *segl, from Proto-Germanic *seglą. Cognate with West Frisian seil, Low German Segel, Dutch zeil, German Segel, Danish sejl, Swedish segel.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"When we haue laught to ſee the ſailes conceiue / And grow big bellied with the wanton winde; […]"
— c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “A Midsommer Nights Dreame”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]:
""[…] The quay is upwards of 1,000 feet in length, and capable of accommodating more than 100 sail of traders; and there are generally a considerable number of vessels of from 40 to 300 tons burden, from various parts of the world, waiting to receive their cargoes.""
— 1945 May and June, Charles E. Lee, “The Penrhyn Railway and its Locomotives—1”, in Railway Magazine, page 142, text published 1848:
"So furious had been the gusts, that high buildings in town had had the lead stripped off their roofs; and in the country, trees had been torn up, and sails of windmills carried away; and gloomy accounts had come in from the coast, of shipwreck and death."
— 1860 December – 1861 August, Charles Dickens, chapter XX, in Great Expectations […], volume II, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published October 1861, →OCLC, page 327:
"Like an eagle […]soaring / / To weather his broad sails."
— 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book V, Canto IV”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 42:
"Fair ship, that from the Italian shore,
Sailest the placid ocean-plains
With my lost Arthur’s loved remains,
Spread thy full wings, and waft him o’er."
— 1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], “Canto IX”, in In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC:
Explore More A2 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
After raising the canvas and filling it with wind, the ship will ____ to the next island.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The yacht began to ____ smoothly across the bay as the wind picked up speed.