luffing

Verb

luff (third-person singular simple present luffs, present participle luffing, simple past and past participle luffed)

1. (intransitive) To shake due to being trimmed improperly.
   • I thought how my life is like a little boat and I must hold the tiller steady against the buffeting of wind and waves, and how sometimes, like this morning, I lose my hold somehow and the sail luffs helplessly and the little vessel wallows, turning this way and that in the swell.1993, John Banville, Ghosts
2. (intransitive) To bring the ship's head up closer to the wind. (Alternatively luff up)
   • "Helm there! Luff, luff a point! So; steady, man, steady!"1851, Herman Melville, Moby Dick
3. (transitive) to let out (a sail) so that it luffs.
4. To alter the vertical angle of the jib of a crane so as to bring it level with the load.
   • The tower is mounted on a slewing platform, which also carries the power plant and the counterweights, while the jib is supported and luffed by fixed pendant ropes.1999, Howard I. Shapiro, Jay P. Shapiro, Lawrence K. Shapiro, Cranes and Derricks, →ISBN, page 95

See all 9 meanings of luff