Word.ws English Dictionary

brail

/bɹeɪl/

brail noun: a small rope used to truss up sails.

Noun

brail (plural brails)

  1. A small rope used to truss up sails.
    Synonyms:
    brailing
  2. 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. A rope or line used to suspend lights or scenery in a certain position.
  5. (in plural) The feathers around a hawk's rump.

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.
    • The winds blew at their own caprice and there was brailing and loosing of canvas.1993, Anthony Burgess, A Dead Man in Deptford

brail meaning in Tamil

brail in Tamil

கப்பற்பாயின் நுனிக்கயிறு, கப்பற்பாயை நுனிக்கயிற்றால் இழு

Synonyms of brail

Forms of brail

Noun
pluralbrails
Verb
third-person singular presentbrails
present participlebrailing
past participlebrailed
pastbrailed

Origin of brail

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

Words formed from brail

Words that rhyme with brail

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about brail

What does brail mean?
Brail means a small rope used to truss up sails.
What is brail in Tamil?
Brail in Tamil is கப்பற்பாயின் நுனிக்கயிறு, கப்பற்பாயை நுனிக்கயிற்றால் இழு. See Brail meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is brail?
Brail can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce brail?
Brail is pronounced /bɹeɪl/.
What is the plural of brail?
The plural of brail is brails.

Words near brail in the dictionary

  1. braids
  2. Braidwood
  3. Braidwoods
  4. braidwork
  5. braies
  6. brail
  7. brailed
  8. brailer
  9. brailers
  10. Brailey
  11. Braileys

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: brail (page history and authors); brail (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “brail.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/brail. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.