Word.ws English Dictionary

close-reefed

close-reefed adjective: of a sail, fully reefed; using all the reefs. Also the simple past and past participle of close-reef.

Adjective

close-reefed (not comparable)

  1. Of a sail, fully reefed; using all the reefs.
    • About noon we saw a vessel on a wind to leeward of us, which was a source of great delight to us all, and we bore down to her. We soon made her out to be an hermaphrodite brig, under her close-reefed topsails and trysails.1846, Frederick Marryat, The Privateersman

Also used as

close-reefed is also the simple past and past participle of close-reef.

Forms of close-reefed

alternative formclosereefed

Origin of close-reefed

From close + reefed.

Questions about close-reefed

What does close-reefed mean?
Close-reefed means of a sail, fully reefed; using all the reefs.
What part of speech is close-reefed?
Close-reefed is an adjective.

Words near close-reefed in the dictionary

  1. close-packing
  2. close-packings
  3. close-quarter
  4. close-range
  5. close-reef
  6. close-reefed
  7. close-reefing
  8. close-reefs
  9. close-run
  10. close-serried
  11. close-set

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: close-reefed (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: “close-reefed.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/close-reefed. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.