sails close to the wind
sails close to the wind is the third-person singular simple present indicative of sail close to the wind.
Meaning of sail close to the wind
Verb
sail close to the wind (third-person singular simple present sails close to the wind, present participle sailing close to the wind, simple past and past participle sailed close to the wind)
- To sail in a direction close to that from which the wind is blowing, while still making headway.
- As the Syrene vvas ſeen to fall to leevvard in the afternoon, the ſignal vvas made to her to ſail as cloſe to the vvind as poſſible.1781, [Mouffle d’Angerville], “Appendix. Secret Expedition, from 1758 to 1759.”, in J. O. Justamond, transl., The Private Life of Lewis XV. […], volume IV, London: […] Charles Dilly, […], →OCLC, page...
- To behave in a manner that is on the verge of being dangerous, illegal, or improper.
- But he received only indifferent remuneration, in those days, and found himself to "sail close to the wind," to meet his current expenses.1876, Geo[rge] P. Burnham, “How Reuben Downer Made and Saved It”, in A Hundred Thousand Dollars in Gold. How to Make It. […], Springfield, Mass.: W. J. Holland, →OCLC, page 198
Questions about sails close to the wind
- What is sails close to the wind the third-person singular simple present indicative of?
- Sails close to the wind is the third-person singular simple present indicative of sail close to the wind.
Words near sails close to the wind in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: sails close to the wind (page history and authors); sail close to the wind (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: “sails close to the wind.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sails_close_to_the_wind. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.