brail

English

Etymology

From Middle English brayle, from Old French braiel, from Medieval Latin bracale (“girdle”) (from bracae (“breeches”)).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bɹeɪl/
• Rhymes: -eɪl

Noun

brail (plural brails)

1. (nautical) A small rope used to truss up sails.

   Synonym: brailing

2. (falconry) A thong of soft leather to bind up a hawk's wing.
3. A stock at each end of a seine to keep it stretched.
4. (theater) A rope or line used to suspend lights or scenery in a certain position.
5. (in the plural) The feathers around a hawk's rump.

Derived terms

• throat brail
• unbrail

 

Verb

brail (third-person singular simple present brails, present participle brailing, simple past and past participle brailed)

1. To reef, shorten or strike sail using brails.
   • 1993, Anthony Burgess, A Dead Man in Deptford:

     The winds blew at their own caprice and there was brailing and loosing of canvas.

References

• “brail”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• 1728, Cyclopaedia, a publication in the public domain.

Anagrams

• Arbil, Baril, Blair, Bliar, Libra, Rabil, libra

Middle English

Noun

brail

1. Alternative form of brayle

Yola

Etymology

From earlier */bəˈɾiːɫ/ , itself from Middle English barayl, from Old French baril.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bɾiːɫ/
• Homophone: breal

Noun

brail (plural brailès)

1. barrel

References

• Jacob Poole (d. 1827) (before 1828) William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, published 1867, page 27