Word.ws English Dictionary

sailour

sailour is the obsolete spelling of sailor.

Meaning of sailor

Noun

sailor (plural sailors)

  1. A person who sails; one whose occupation is sailing or navigating ships or other waterborne craft.
    • He's a talented sailor and has spent many years at sea.
    Synonyms:
    seafarer, seaman, mariner
    1. In particular, a member of the crew of a (civilian or military) vessel, as opposed to a captain, admiral, etc.; a mariner; a common seaman.
      • Merchants, common sailors, captains of vessels, skippers, […] naval officers of all countries, and the Governments of several states on the two continents, were deeply interested in the matter.1873, Jules Verne, chapter I, in [anonymous], transl., Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Seas; […], James R. Osgood edition, Boston, Mass.: Geo[rge] M[urray] Smith & Co., →OCLC, part I, page 3
    2. A person who sails sailing boats (as opposed to boats powered by other means) as a sport or recreation.
  2. Any of various nymphalid butterflies of the genera Neptis, Pseudoneptis and Phaedyma, having white markings on a dark base and commonly flying by gliding.
  3. A stiff straw hat with a flat, circular brim and a low, flat crown.
    • Straw Sailors. Children's large-leaf straw sailors, in new shapes, smooth or rough straw . Sizes 6 to 64. 80c, $1.00, $1.50 and $2.00. Milan sailors in new, large shapes, with white or cream ribbon.1909, Albert E. Edgar, How to Advertise a Retail Store, Including Mail Order Advertising and General Advertising: A Complete and Comprehensive Manual for Promoting Publicity, page 332
  4. A brick, for example in a course of brickwork, that is laid vertically on its shortest end (smallest face), with its widest face facing the outside of the wall.

See all 7 meanings of sailor

Forms of sailour

pluralsailours

Questions about sailour

What is sailour the obsolete spelling of?
Sailour is the obsolete spelling of sailor.

Words near sailour in the dictionary

  1. Sailors Falls
  2. Sailors Gully
  3. Sailors Hill
  4. sailorwoman
  5. sailorwomen
  6. sailour
  7. sailours
  8. sailpast
  9. sailpasts
  10. sailplane
  11. sailplaned

Source and license

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