Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use sail in a sentence

40 example sentences · noun, verb

Sail means a piece of fabric attached to a boat and arranged such that it causes the wind to drive the boat along. The sail may be attached to the boat via a combination of mast, spars and ropes. Example: “Take in sail: a storm is coming.”

Examples of sail by meaning

nounThe concept of a sail or sails, as if a substance.

  • Take in sail: a storm is coming.

nounA trip in a boat, especially a sailboat.

  • Let's go for a sail.

nounA sailing vessel; a vessel of any kind; a craft.

  • Twenty sail were in sight.

nounA sailfish.

  • We caught three sails today.

verbTo set sail; to begin a voyage.

  • We sail for Australia tomorrow.

verbTo move briskly and gracefully through the air.

  • A hopeful ball from Forest right-back Brendan Moloney to the left edge of the area was met first by Ruddy but his attempted clearance rebounded off Tyson's leg and sailed in.2011 April 15, Saj Chowdhury, “Norwich 2 - 1 Nott'm Forest”, in BBC Sport

verbTo move briskly but sedately.

  • The duchess sailed haughtily out of the room.

verbTo deal out (cards) from a distance by impelling them across a surface.

  • He would sit his hat across the room, and we would sail cards into it.2007, Johnny Hughes, Texas Poker Wisdom, page 22

More sentences with sail

  • By easing the halyard, the luff of the sail was made to sag to leeward.From the entry luff
  • They pirated the tanker and sailed to a port where they could sell the ship and cargo.From the entry pirate
  • If we sail off at noon, when will we be across?From the entry across
  • We sailed up the East Coast of England from Ipswich to South Shields.From the entry up
  • In the dying moments of daylight I glimpsed a sail on the horizon.From the entry dying
  • We sailed full and by for quite a while before getting down to serious navigation.From the entry full and by
  • We'll be able to sail safely across the bay once the storm dies down.From the entry die down
  • The sailors of the regatta are going to wait out this weather before they set sail.From the entry set sail
  • If a sailing boat's bow is pointing too high into the wind the sails backwind.From the entry backwind
  • Our preparations were all finished. Accordingly, we set sail.From the entry accordingly
  • The ship was booming under the press of sail.From the entry boom
  • The ship’s sail drew when the wind blew strongly.From the entry draw
  • 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
  • I’m fitting the ship for a summer sail home.From the entry fit
  • The ship moved forward under a cloud of sail.From the entry cloud
  • The fleet of ships was fifty sail deep.From the entry deep
  • Sail away from the wash to avoid rocking the boat.From the entry wash
  • The ship had to sail round the pack of ice.From the entry pack
  • We eased the boom vang, then lowered the sail.From the entry ease
  • The bunt of the sail was green.From the entry bunt
  • A sail caught by a promiscuous wind.From the entry promiscuous
  • It is dangerous to sail in turbulent seas.From the entry turbulent
  • Even a weak flutter can damage your sail.From the entry flutter
  • We set sail toward the landless horizon.From the entry landless
  • The ships’ lines and sails were all afoul.From the entry afoul
  • The schooner took to sea with full-blown sails.From the entry full-blown
  • The ore boat sailed upbound through the locks last week.From the entry upbound
  • A Navy task force is expected to set sail shortly.From the entry set sail
  • We sailed our knockabout around Cape Cod.From the entry knockabout
  • It took many weeks to cross the Atlantic by sail.From the entry by sail
  • The early steam-powered ships also took advantage of sails.From the entry steam-powered
  • A ship sails in the eye of the wind.From the entry in the eye of the wind

Meaning of sail

  1. noun A piece of fabric attached to a boat and arranged such that it causes the wind to drive the boat along. The sail may be attached to the boat via a combination of mast, spars and ropes.
  2. noun The concept of a sail or sails, as if a substance.
  3. noun The power harnessed by a sail or sails, or the use of this power for travel or transport.

Full definition of sail

Questions about sail in a sentence

How do you use sail in a sentence?
Sail is used as a noun and verb. For example: “Take in sail: a storm is coming.”
What is a short sentence with sail?
“Let's go for a sail.”
What does sail mean?
Sail means a piece of fabric attached to a boat and arranged such that it causes the wind to drive the boat along. The sail may be attached to the boat via a combination of mast, spars and ropes.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: sail (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 sail in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/sail. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.