trysail Naut.
(ˈtraɪseɪl, ˈtraɪs(ə)l)
Also 9 trey-, tray-, trice-, tri-.
[f. try n. + sail.]
A small fore-and-aft sail, set with a gaff, and sometimes with a boom, on the fore- or mainmast, or on a small supplementary mast abaft either of these. Also attrib., as trysail gaff, trysail mast, trysail mizen, trysail sheet.
| 1769 Falconer Dict. Marine (1789) M m iv, When the sloops of war are rigged as snows, they are furnished with a horse, which answers the purpose of the try-sail-mast, the fore part of the sail being attached by rings to the said horse. 1794 Riggings & Seamanship I. 83 A trysail, used instead of a mizen,..is extended towards the stern, and..fastened by hoops round a small mast, called a trysail mast, fixed near the aft-side of the main-mast in a block of wood in the quarter deck. 1810 J. H. Moore Pract. Navigator 290 Trey-sail. A small sail used by brigs and cutters in blowing weather. 1832 J. Guy Pocket Cycl. 402 A small mast, reaching up into the maintop, to which a tricesail mizen is attached. 1840 R. H. Dana Bef. Mast iv. 16 We..hauled up the mainsail and trysail. Ibid. ix. 22 Trysail gaff [see gaff n.1 2]. 1850 L. Hunt Autobiog. II. xvii. 259 We saw her..lying-to under trysails. |