gybing

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