Word.ws English Dictionary

reef-tackle

reef-tackle noun: the ropes that are tightened to reef a sail or loosened to fully extend it.

Noun

reef-tackle (plural reef-tackles)

  1. The ropes that are tightened to reef a sail or loosened to fully extend it.
    • topsail yards down upon the caps, and sails flapping and beating against the masts; and starboard watch hauling out the reef-tackles of the main topsail.1840, R[ichard] H[enry] D[ana], Jr., “CHAPTER XXXV”, in Two Years before the Mast. […] (Harper’s Family Library; no. CVI), New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers […], →OCLC

Forms of reef-tackle

pluralreef-tackles

Questions about reef-tackle

What does reef-tackle mean?
Reef-tackle means the ropes that are tightened to reef a sail or loosened to fully extend it.
What part of speech is reef-tackle?
Reef-tackle is a noun.
What is the plural of reef-tackle?
The plural of reef-tackle is reef-tackles.

Words near reef-tackle in the dictionary

  1. reef-band
  2. reef-bands
  3. reef-fish
  4. reef-point
  5. reef-points
  6. reef-tackle
  7. reef-tackles
  8. reefable
  9. reefage
  10. reefal
  11. reefband

Source and license

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