gaff-topsail
1. ‘A light triangular or quadrilateral sail, the head being extended on a small gaff which hoists on the topmast, and the foot on the lower gaff’ (Adm. Smyth). Also attrib., as gaff-topsail-hook.
| 1794 Rigging & Seamanship I. 83 Over the head of the mainsail a gaff topsail. 1833 M. Scott Tom Cringle viii, What a gaff-top sail she has got—my eye! 1835 Sir J. Ross Narr. 2nd Voy. iv. 44 Taking in the Mainsail, gaff topsail. 1875 Bedford Sailor's Pocket Bk. x. 349 Gaff top sail Voile à corne. 1884 Knight Dict. Mech. IV. 365/1 Gaff-topsail Hook, a mousing hook for a gaff topsail with rope sheet. |
| fig. 1840 Marryat Poor Jack ii, Your mother..with..such a rakish gaff topsail bonnet, with pink pennants. |
2. U.S. ‘A kind of sea-catfish, ælurichthys marinus’ (Cent. Dict.).