mainsail

UK/ˈmeɪnseɪl/US/ˈmeɪnseɪl/

nounC1Occasional — familiar, but not everyday · #11,052 of 15,258neutral

Other forms: mainsails

The mainsail is the largest sail, set behind the main mast. Hoist the mainsail, reef the mainsail, the mainsail filled.

It does most of the driving on a modern yacht, with the smaller headsail in front of the mast. Sailors swallow the second syllable when they say it, which is how you can tell somebody has been on a boat.

Definitions of mainsail

1nounmainsailThe largest sail, set behind the main mast.C1
“The crew hoisted the mainsail, and the yacht began to pick up speed.”

mainsail is a sail.

Where it comes from

From main + sail.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Sea & Sailing

Practise this word

mainsail in the wild

The mainsail may be of any type, most often Bermuda rig, but also others, such as gaff or gunter.
Sloop
In this maneuver, the mainsail will cross the center of the boat while the jib is pulled to the other side of the boat.
Jibe
If a spinnaker is up, its pole will have to be manually moved to the other side, to remain opposite the mainsail.
Jibe
The system usually consists of a line which is secured at one end to the mast or boom below the foot of the mainsail.
Cunningham (sailing)
A mainsail is a sail rigged on the main mast of a sailing vessel.
Mainsail

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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.

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