▪ I. brail, n.1
(breɪl)
Also 5–6 brayl(e, -ll(e, 7 brale, braile.
[a. OF. brail, earlier braiel:—L. brācāle ‘breech-girdle, waist-belt for keeping up the breeches’, form brācæ breeches; hence girdle, cincture, in other senses; in sense 1 braiel occurs in Wace.]
1. pl. Small ropes fastened to the edges of sails to truss them up before furling.
| a 1450 Pilgrims Sea-Voy. 33 in Stacions Rome (1867) 38 Y howe! trussa! hale in the brayles! 1627 Capt. Smith Seaman's Gram. v. 22 The Brales are small ropes reeued thorow Blockes..with them we furle or farthell our sailes acrosse. 1762–9 Falconer Shipwr. ii. 287 The sailors..man the enfolding brails. 1885 Norris A. Vidal III. 224 Catch hold of those brails, and haul on them when I tell you. |
b. ? A rope attached to a fishing net for a similar purpose.
| 1883 Fisheries Exhib. Catal. 195 Minnow gangs, brails, gangings, used in various sea fisheries. 1883 Abbott in Glasgow Weekly Her. 14 July 8/1 Some [of the fish]..made their way between the brail and the net. |
2. A girdle used to confine a hawk's wings.
| 1828 Sebright Hawking 12 The brail..is a thong of soft leather with a slit..along the middle. 1875 ‘Stonehenge’ Brit. Sports i. iv. i. §6. 295 When first hooding her, the brail should be used. |
3. pl. The feathers about a hawk's rump; also attrib., as in brail-feathers.
| 1486 Bk. St. Albans A viij b, The same federis ye shall call the brayles or the brayle federis. 1575 Turberv. Bk. Falconrie 278 All the brayles and smal fethers of the trayne. 1611 Cotgr., Brayeul, feathers about a hawkes fundament, called by our Faulconers the brayle. |
▪ II. brail, n.2
[ad. F. brelle in same sense: see Littré.]
In the American timber trade: A number of logs held together by ropes and booms, forming part of a raft.
| 1879 Lumberman's Gaz. 1 Oct. This part of the Slough is wide and deep, and is used for coupling up the strings into brails and rafts. |
▪ III. brail, v.
(breɪl)
Also 7 braile, brale.
[f. brail n.1]
trans.
1. To haul up (the sails) by means of the brails.
| 1625 Sir R. Granville in G. Granville's Wks. (1732) 293 My Lord Essex did Brail up his Foresail. 1762 Falconer Shipwr. ii. 26 ‘Brail up the mizen quick!’ the Master cries. 1834 M. Scott Cruise Midge (1863) 95 The frigate hauled down the jib and brailed up the spanker. |
2. To confine (a hawk's wings) with a brail.
| 1643 Parables on Times 9 Not content to braile and clip their wings onely. 1828 Sebright Hawking 13 He should be carried on the fist..with his wing brailed. |