main-sheet, ˈmainsheet Naut.
1. The rope which secures the mainsail when set.
| 1485 Naval Acc. Hen. VII (1896) 48 Mayne shetes. a 1637 B. Jonson Discov., De orationis dign., The main-sheet and the boulin. 1694 Acc. Sev. Late Voy. i. (1711) 163 We..veered out the main-Sheet to ware the Ship. 1762 Falconer Shipwr. ii. 27 Let the main-sheet fly! 1862 Marsh Eng. Lang. xi. 164 A sailor will not be likely to interlard his go-ashore talk with clew-lines, main-sheets, and halliards. |
| fig. a 1575 Gascoigne Dan Bartholomew Posies Flowers 80 Yet hauld I in the mayne-sheate of the minde. |
b. attrib., as
main-sheet-block,
main-sheet-horse.
| 1867 Smyth Sailor's Word-bk., Mainsheet-horse, a kind of iron dog fixed at the middle of a wooden beam, stretching across a craft's stern, from one quarter stanchion to the other; on it the mainsheet-block travels. |
2. Jamaica slang. (See first
quot.)
| 1882 Pall Mall G. 20 May 4/2 Main-sheet is weak rum-and-water..and it seems to derive its quaintly expressive name from the native habit of taking constant pulls at it all day long. 1890 Blackw. Mag. June 784 An old man invited to have a drink of mainsheet. |