Link Centre Dictionary

sail

UK/seɪl/ US/seɪɫ/ common
verb (4) noun (2)

verb

1.

traverse or travel by ship on (a body of water)

  • “We sailed the Atlantic”
  • “He sailed the Pacific all alone”
2.

move with sweeping, effortless, gliding motions

  • “The diva swept into the room”
  • “Shreds of paper sailed through the air”
  • “The searchlights swept across the sky”
Synonyms
3.

travel in a boat propelled by wind

  • “I love sailing, especially on the open sea”
4.

travel by boat on a boat propelled by wind or by other means

  • “The QE2 will sail to Southampton tomorrow”
Synonyms

noun

1.

a large piece of fabric (as canvas) by means of which wind is used to propel a sailing vessel

Synonyms
2.

an ocean trip taken for pleasure

Synonyms

Origin

From Middle English sailen, saylen, seilen, seilien, from Old English seġlan, siġlan (“to sail”), from Proto-West Germanic *siglijan, from *siglijaną. Cognate with West Frisian sile, Low German seilen, Dutch zeilen, German segeln, Danish sejle, Swedish segla, Icelandic sigla.

Phrases

  • balloon sail
  • by sail
  • crowd sail
  • drag sail
  • drift sail
  • electric sail
  • full sail
  • gaff sail
  • sail by
  • sail close to the wind
  • sail on another board
  • sail the high seas

Related words

Word family

Broader terms

Narrower terms

See also

Parts

Related verbs

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.