Word.ws English Dictionary

gybed

gybed is the simple past and past participle of gybe.

Meaning of gybe

Verb

gybe (third-person singular simple present gybes, present participle gybing, simple past and past participle gybed)

  1. (transitive) To shift a fore-and-aft sail from one side of a sailing vessel to the other, while sailing before the wind.
  2. (intransitive) Of a fore-and-aft sail or its boom: to shift, often forcefully and suddenly, from one side of a sailing vessel to the other.
    • […] I had my Man Friday to teach as to what belong'd to the Navigation of my Boat; for though he knew very well how to paddle a Canoe, he knew nothing what belong'd to a Sail and a Rudder, and was the moſt amaz'd when he ſaw me work the Boat too and again in the Sea by the Rudder, and how the Sail...1719 May 6 (Gregorian calendar), [Daniel Defoe], The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, […], London: […] W[illiam] Taylor […], →OCLC, page 271
  3. (intransitive) Generally of a small sailing vessel: to change tack with the wind crossing behind the vessel.
  4. (broadly, obsolete) Often as gybe at: to balk, hesitate, or vacillate when faced with a course of action, plan, or proposal.

See all 7 meanings of gybe

Questions about gybed

What is gybed the simple past and past participle of?
Gybed is the simple past and past participle of gybe.

Words near gybed in the dictionary

  1. gyatt dayum
  2. gyatts
  3. gyaul
  4. gyauls
  5. gybe
  6. gybed
  7. gybes
  8. gybing
  9. gyeld
  10. gyelds
  11. gyelong

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: gybed (page history and authors); gybe (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: “gybed.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/gybed. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.