sail

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   travel on water propelled by wind or by other means

   The QE2 will sail to Southampton tomorrow

2. 2
   verb

   traverse or travel on (a body of water)

   We sailed the Atlantic

3. 3
   verb

   travel on water propelled by wind

   I love sailing, especially on the open sea

4. 4
   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.

   When we haue laught to ſee the ſailes conceiue / And grow big bellied with the wanton winde; […]

5. 5
   noun

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

   Take in sail: a storm is coming.

6. 6
   noun

   A trip in a boat, especially a sailboat.

   Let's go for a sail.

7. 7
   noun

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

   Twenty sail were in sight.

8. 8
   noun

   The blade of a windmill.

   So furious had been the gusts, that high buildings in town had had the lead stripped off their roofs; and in the country, trees had been torn up, and sails of windmills carried away; and gloomy accounts had come in from the coast, of shipwreck and death.

Etymology

From Middle English sailen, saylen, seilen, seilien, from Old English seġlan, siġlan (“to sail”), from Proto-West Germanic *siglijan, from *siglijaną. Cognate with West Frisian sile, Low German seilen, Dutch zeilen, German segeln, Danish sejle, Swedish segla, Icelandic sigla.