Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use mainsail in a sentence

12 example sentences · noun

Mainsail means the largest (or only) sail on a sailing vessel. Example: “Main course and mainsail are the same thing in a sailing ship.”

More sentences with mainsail

  • Main course and mainsail are the same thing in a sailing ship.From the entry course
  • To make the mainsail fuller in shape, the outhaul is eased to reduce the tension on the foot of the sail.From the entry foot
  • Her mainyard was 80 feet long, and her mainsail had a drop of 40 feet.1969, Richard Armstrong, The Merchantmen, page 97. From the entry drop
  • A slackish kicking strap allows the top of the mainsail to fall off forward in the heaviest gusts.2009, Eric Twiname, Start to Win: The Classic Text, →ISBN, page 106. From the entry slackish
  • I took responsibility for hauling up the terracotta mainsail, under the tutelage of a friendly, Harry Potteresque teenager.2006, Nick Thorpe, Adrift in Caledonia: Boat-hitching for the Unenlightened, Abacus, published 2007, →ISBN, page 229. From the entry Harry Potteresque
  • Trim the leech of the jib parallel to the main by watching the slot between the mainsail and the jib.2004, Gary Jobson, Gary Jobson's Championship Sailing, page 176. From the entry leech
  • Up went the jib and then the mainsail.1950 October, MotorBoating, →ISSN, page 21. From the entry Dutchman's breeches
  • There seem to be two bowlines to the mainsail.1925, Moore, Alan Hilary, Sir,2d bart., 1882-1959, “Lugsails”, in Last days of mast & sail: an essay in nautical comparative anatomy, page…. From the entry vargord
  • 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. From the entry reef
  • In effect, you are getting two mainsails here – a flat one with overbend wrinkles , and a normal one without overbend wrinkles.1995, Tom Linskey, Race Winning Strategies: Smart Lessons with Deep Dakron, page 120. From the entry overbend
  • These smart boats somewhat resemble the "bawleys," except that their rig is yachtier in appearance and the boom mainsails have a loftier cut.1969, Edgar L. Bloomster, Sailing and Small Craft Down the Ages. From the entry yachtier
  • The breeze was no fresher, so we shook out the reefs in the mainsail, and windjammed up the coast, N½W with started sheets.1934 July, A.C. Strong, “A Line Squall off Cape Hatteras”, in Yachting, volume LVI, page 90, column 2. From the entry windjam

Meaning of mainsail

  1. noun The largest (or only) sail on a sailing vessel.

Full definition of mainsail

Questions about mainsail in a sentence

How do you use mainsail in a sentence?
Mainsail is used as a noun. For example: “Main course and mainsail are the same thing in a sailing ship.”
What is a short sentence with mainsail?
“Up went the jib and then the mainsail.”
What does mainsail mean?
Mainsail means the largest (or only) sail on a sailing vessel.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: mainsail (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use mainsail in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/mainsail. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.