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gaff

UK/ɡæf/US/ɡæf/
nounC2Occasional — familiar, but not everyday · #9,848 of 15,258neutral

Other forms: gaffs

A gaff is a hooked pole for landing a large fish. Reach with the gaff.

It is used only for fish being kept, since it does real damage. To blow the gaff is a separate phrase and means giving a secret away.

Markus Bärlocher · Public domain

Definitions of gaff

  1. 1noungaffA hooked pole for landing a large fish.C2

    “The gaff was over the side before the fish was anywhere near the boat.”

gaff is a tool.

Where it comes from

Old French gaffe comes from Occitan gaf, a hook, from gafar, to seize.

  1. Old Occitan

    gaf — hook

  2. Old French

    gaffe

  3. Middle English

    gaffe

  4. English, today

    gaff

Built from

  • gafar · Old Occitan — to seize
  • 𐌲𐌹𐌱𐌰𐌽 · Gothic — to give

From Middle English gaffe, from Old French gaffe, from Old Occitan gaf (“hook”), derivative of gafar (“to seize”), from 𐌲𐌹𐌱𐌰𐌽 (“to give”). a doublet of gaffe. underwear apparently derives from the idea that the garment tricks or deceives others about the wearer's genitalia.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

gaff in the wild

  • The mainsail may be of any type, most often Bermuda rig, but also others, such as gaff or gunter.

    Sloop

  • The most common variants are gaff-rigged and staysail schooners, with the topsail schooner carrying a square topsail on the foremast, and Bermuda and junk-rigs being rarities.

    Schooner

  • Historical fore-and-aft rigs used a four-sided gaff rigged mainsail, sometimes setting a gaff topsail above it.

    Mainsail

  • Because of the size and shape of the sail, a gaff rig will have running backstays rather than permanent backstays.

    Gaff rig

  • A gaff rig typically carries 25 percent more sail than an equivalent Bermuda rig for a given hull design.

    Gaff rig

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

the gaffe family

gaff

gaff — used about once every 5,283 pages · #9,848 · point at the bar for the others