reef
/ɹiːf/
reef noun: a chain or range of rocks, sand, or coral lying at or near the surface of the water.
Noun (1)
reef (plural reefs)
- A chain or range of rocks, sand, or coral lying at or near the surface of the water.
- A large vein of auriferous quartz; hence, any body of rock yielding valuable ore.
Noun (2)
reef (plural reefs)
- A portion of a sail rolled and tied down to lessen the area exposed in a high wind.
- They sailed as if they were stark mad; they never took in a reef in the sail, and when the seas filled the boat, they sailed her up on the back of a wave till she stood nearly on end, the water rushing out over her stern as out of a spout.1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 49
- A reef knot.
Verb
reef (third-person singular simple present reefs, present participle reefing, simple past and past participle reefed)
- To take in part of a sail in order to adapt the size of the sail to the force of the wind.
- "When the day arrived that the boy was to be skipper, the weather was calm and fine, but he called all men to reef sails, so the ship had scarcely any sail on her."1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 188
- Be sure the blocks are securely mounted—they carry a fairish load when the sail is reefed.
If both reefing line and main halyard are led to the cockpit, even singlehanded reefing is a breeze.1970 July–December, Margaret Quilty, Roller Reefing Made Easy, Boating, page 63
- To pull or yank strongly, especially in relation to horse riding.
- And when the Cup came on he stirred them up ′round the barrier and he flew out of the barrier and he pulled and reefed and pulled and reefed and Lewis didn′t let him settle down until about three furlongs from home and when he did settle the horse was all out of stride and he went back through the...1986, Jan Wositzky, Me and Phar Lap: The Remarkable Life of Tommy Woodcock, published 2011, page 49
- Alf told me that one young white stockman, eager to impress the girls, went outside and mounted his horse, then began showing off his prowess, racing past the pub, wheeling and reefing his horse up and down the street, yackeyeing and whooping, flogging his horse with a battered old hat and always...1994, Herb Wharton, Cattle Camp: Murrie Drovers and Their Stories, published 2010, page 73
- To move the floats of a paddle wheel toward its center so that they will not dip so deeply.
- Reef the paddles.
- To manipulate the lining of a person's pocket in order to steal the contents unnoticed.
- This was done by "reefing." He put two fingers just inside the opening and lifted the lining a trifle. Although I watched his hands, I could feel nothing, so gently did his fingers work. Reefing a couple of times, he lifted my handkerchief, as he might have taken out anything else.Myron M. Stearns, So You Lost Your Pocketbook?, in 1940, The Rotarian (volume 56, number 2, page 39)
Adjective
reef (comparative reefer or more reef, superlative reefest or most reef)
Noun (3)
reef (plural reefs)
Proper noun capitalized: Reef
Reef (plural Reefs)
- A surname from German.
reef meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
reef in Hindi
- reef
- चट्टान caṭṭān
reef in Tamil
- ரீஃப்
reef in Marathi
- रीफ
reef in Urdu
- ریف
More languagesFewer languages
- reef in Bengali
- প্রবালপ্রাচীর
- reef in Telugu
- రీఫ్, రీఫ్కు, రీఫ్కి
- reef in Malayalam
- പാറക്കെട്ട്, കടൽപ്പാറനിര, മണൽത്തിട്ട, മണത്തിട്ട
- reef in Kannada
- ರೀಫ್
- reef in Punjabi
- ਰੀਫ, ਰੀਫ਼
- reef in Gujarati
- રીફ
- reef in Odia
- ରିଫ, ରୀଫ୍
- reef in Nepali
- रीफ
- reef in Arabic
- شَعَاب šaʕāb
- reef in Malay
- terumbu
- reef in Indonesian
- terumbu
- reef in Persian
- آبسنگ âbsang
- reef in Thai
- โขดหิน kòht hĭn
- reef in Vietnamese
- đá ngầm, ám tiêu
- reef in Myanmar
- ကျောက်တန်း kyauktan:
Examples of reef in a sentence
- The reefing system for a mainsail must be designed to operate efficiently under adverse conditions and to provide proper sail shape when reefed.2004, Charlie Wing, How Boat Things Work, page 108:
- He reefed on the handbrake and sat smoking his cigarette, gazing out through the windscreen at the driveway.2002, Alex Miller, Journey to the Stone Country, Allen & Unwin, published 2003, page 76:
Forms of reef
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | reefs |
| alternative form | riff |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | reefs |
| present participle | reefing |
| past participle | reefed |
| past | reefed |
| Adjective | |
| comparative | reefer |
| comparative | more reef |
| superlative | reefest |
| superlative | most reef |
| alternative form | reif |
| alternative form | rief |
| Proper noun | |
| plural | Reefs |
Origin of reef
From earlier riff, from Middle English rif, from Old Norse rif (“rib, reef”), from Proto-Germanic *ribją (“rib, reef”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁rebʰ- (“arch, ceiling, cover”). Dutch rif (“reef”), Low German riff, reff (“reef”), German Riff (“reef, ledge”) are also borrowed from Old Norse. Doublet of rib.
From Middle English reef, from Old Norse rif, Middle Dutch rif, rēve, and/or Middle Low German ref. Possibly a figurative use of the word for “rib” in etymology 1 above, in which case all forms must, again, be borrowings from Old Norse. Alternatively it may be a different word related to Old English rift (“curtain, veil”), ārāfian (“to uncoil, wind off”).
From Middle English ref, hreof, from Old English hrēof (“rough, scabby, leprous", also "a leper”), from Proto-Germanic *hreubaz (“rough, scabby, scrubby”), from Proto-Indo-European *kreup- (“scab, crust”), related to Old English hrēofla (“leprosy, leper”). Cognate with Scots reif (“a skin disease leaving crusts on the skin, the scab”), Old High German riob (“leprous, scabby, mangy”), Icelandic hrjúfur (“scabby, rough”). Compare riffe, dandruff.
Words formed from reef
- backreef
- Barneys Reef
- barrier reef
- Barrys Reef
- close-reef
- coral reef
- Douglas Reef
- Douglass Reef
- Fiery Cross Reef
- forereef
- Forest Reefs
- fringing reef
- interreef
- Junee Reefs
- McMahons Reef
- Napoleon Reef
- Ocean Reef
- Pacific reef heron
- reefage
- reefal
- reef and beef
- reef crab
- reef fish
- reefgoby
- reef knoll
- reeflike
- reef line
- reefpoint
- reef point
- reef rash
- reef shark
- reef squid
- Reef Station
- reef-tackle
- Reefton
- reef triggerfish
- reefwalker
- reefwalking
- reefward
- reefwards
- reefwide
- reefy
- saddle back reef
- saddle reef
- Staffordshire Reef
- take a reef in
- Vuladdore Reef
- Welshmans Reef
- Woodsreef
- yellowtail reef fish
- reef-band
- reefless
- bag reef
- reef earing
- Spanish reef
- disreef
- reefable
- unreef
- unreefed
Phrases with reef
- reef band
- reef knot
- Irish reef
- reef bands
- reef break
- reef crabs
- reef knots
- reef lines
- reef breaks
- reef fishes
- reef knolls
- reef points
21 more phrasesFewer phrases
- reef rashes
- reef sharks
- reef squids
- Kingman Reef
- reef 'n' beef
- took a reef in
- gray reef shark
- grey reef shark
- taken a reef in
- takes a reef in
- gray reef sharks
- grey reef sharks
- taking a reef in
- bigfin reef squid
- bigfin reef squids
- Great Barrier Reef
- reef triggerfishes
- blacktip reef shark
- whitetip reef shark
- blacktip reef sharks
- whitetip reef sharks
Words that rhyme with reef
Questions about reef
- What does reef mean?
- Reef means a chain or range of rocks, sand, or coral lying at or near the surface of the water.
- What is reef in Hindi?
- Reef in Hindi is चट्टान (caṭṭān). See Reef meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use reef in a sentence?
- The reefing system for a mainsail must be designed to operate efficiently under adverse conditions and to provide proper sail shape when reefed.
- What part of speech is reef?
- Reef can be a noun, a verb, an adjective or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce reef?
- Reef is pronounced /ɹiːf/.
- What is the plural of reef?
- The plural of reef is reefs.
Words near reef in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: reef (page history and authors); Reef (page history and authors); चट्टान (Hindi) (page history and authors); reef (Tamil, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); reef (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); reef (Urdu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); reef (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); reef (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); reef (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); reef (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); reef (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); reef (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); reef (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); reef (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-reef.ogg, en-au-reef.ogg.
Cite this entry: “reef.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/reef. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.