ˈgoose-wing
1. The wing of a goose. † Sometimes used as a type of what is of trifling value. In quot. 1630 with allusion to the feathers used for arrows.
| 1377 Langl. P. Pl. B. iv. 36 Thei ne gyueth nouȝte of god one gose wynge. 1549 Latimer 7th Serm. bef. Edw. VI (Arb.) 113 He was not able to giue so much as a gose wynge: for they were none of hys to gyue. 1550 Crowley Epigr. 470 They invent idle othes,..by the goose wyng. 1577 B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. iv. (1586) 188 b, If any thing remaine, not washed away, you must sweepe it out with a Goose wing. 1586 Bright Melanch. iv. 27 Water fowle are not of melancholicke persons to be tasted, except the goose-wings. 1630 J. Taylor (Water P.) Wks. i. 107/1 Search the Chronicles, it is most plaine, That the Goose-wing braue conquests did obtaine. |
2. Naut. (See quots.; cf. goose-quill 2.)
| 1626 Capt. Smith Accid. Yng. Sea-men 29 Put out a goose-winge, or a hullocke of a sayle. 1627 ― Seaman's Gram. ix. 41 For more haste vnparrell the mizen yard and lanch it, and the saile ouer her Lee quarter, and fit Giues at the further end to keepe the yard steady, and with a Boome boome it out; this we call a Goose-wing. 1769 Falconer Dict. Marine (1780), Goose-wings of a sail, the clues or lower corners of a ship's main-sail or fore-sail, when the middle part is furled or tied up to the yard. 1836 Marryat Midsh. Easy xxvi, Those on deck were..setting the goose-wings of the mainsail, to prevent the frigate from being pooped a second time. 1867 Smyth Sailor's Word-bk., Goose-wings of a Sail, the situation of a course when the bunt-lines and lee-clue are hauled up, and the weather-clue down...Also applied to the fore and main sails of a schooner or other two-masted fore-and-aft vessel; when running before the wind she has these sails set on opposite sides. |
Hence ˈgoose-winged a. Also ˈgoose-wing v., to set the sails of a vessel in a ‘goose-wing’ fashion (see n. 2, esp. quot. 1867); in fore-and-aft rig, when running before the wind, to boom out two working sails, one on either side.
| 1866 J. MacGregor Thousand Miles in Rob Roy Canoe (ed. 2) vi. 108 And the white sails swell towards you, goosewinged, before a flowing breeze. 1869 Mayne Reid's Mag. June 515 We beheld a large ship lying to under goose-winged main-top-sail and storm⁓stay-sails. 1883 Clark Russell Sailors' Lang., Goose-winged—when the weather clew of a course is down and the lee clew and the buntlines hauled up. 1896 Kipling Seven Seas 61 And the Northern Light stood out again, goose-winged to open sea. 1920 Blackw. Mag. Mar. 320/1 An ability to keep clear of shifting sandbanks was deemed of more value than the correct way to ‘goose⁓wing’ a tattered topsail. 1961 F. H. Burgess Dict. Sailing 103 Goose-wing, sail with mainsail set one side and foresail set the other side, so that one will not blanket the other. |