sail

• IPA^(key): /seɪl/, [seɪɫ]

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪl
• (pane–pain merger) Homophone: sale

From Middle English saile, sayle, seil, seyl, from Old English seġl, from Proto-West Germanic *segl, from Proto-Germanic *seglą. Cognate with West Frisian seil, Low German Segel, Dutch zeil, German Segel, Danish sejl, Swedish segel.

sail (countable and uncountable, plural sails)

1. (nautical) 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.
   • c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “A Midsommer Nights Dreame”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]:

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

2. (nautical, uncountable) The concept of a sail or sails, as if a substance.

   Take in sail: a storm is coming.

3. (uncountable) The power harnessed by a sail or sails, or the use of this power for travel or transport.
4. A trip in a boat, especially a sailboat.

   Let's go for a sail.

5. (dated, plural "sail") A sailing vessel; a vessel of any kind; a craft.

   Twenty sail were in sight.

   • 1945 May and June, Charles E. Lee, “The Penrhyn Railway and its Locomotives—1”, in Railway Magazine, page 142, text published 1848:

     " […] The quay is upwards of 1,000 feet in length, and capable of accommodating more than 100 sail of traders; and there are generally a considerable number of vessels of from 40 to 300 tons burden, from various parts of the world, waiting to receive their cargoes."

6. (nautical) The conning tower of a submarine.
7. The blade of a windmill.
   • 1860 December – 1861 August, Charles Dickens, chapter XX, in Great Expectations […], volume II, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published October 1861, →OCLC, page 327:

     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.

8. A tower-like structure found on the dorsal (topside) surface of submarines.
9. The floating organ of siphonophores, such as the Portuguese man-of-war.
10. (fishing) A sailfish.

    We caught three sails today.

11. (paleontology) an outward projection of the spine, occurring in certain dinosaurs and synapsids
12. Anything resembling a sail, such as a wing.
    • 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book V, Canto IV”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 42:

      Like an eagle […] soaring / / To weather his broad sails.

• See also Thesaurus:sail

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.

sail (third-person singular simple present sails, present participle sailing, simple past and past participle sailed)

2. To be impelled or driven forward by the action of wind upon sails, as a ship on water; to be impelled on a body of water by steam or other power.
   • 1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], “Canto IX”, in In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC:

     Fair ship, that from the Italian shore,
     ⁠Sailest the placid ocean-plains
     ⁠With my lost Arthur’s loved remains,
     Spread thy full wings, and waft him o’er.

3. To move through or on the water; to swim, as a fish or a waterfowl.
4. To ride in a boat, especially a sailboat.
5. (intransitive) To set sail; to begin a voyage.

   We sail for Australia tomorrow.

6. To move briskly and gracefully through the air.
   • c. 1591–1595 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii]:

     As is a winged messenger of heaven, […] / When he bestrides the lazy pacing clouds, / And sails upon the bosom of the air.

   • 2002 March 20, Kazuki Takahashi, Yu-Gi-Oh! Forbidden Memories (PlayStation video game, North American version), Konami:

     [flavor text of the card "Spirit of the Winds"] A spirit of the wind that freely sails the skies.

   • 2011 April 15, Saj Chowdhury, “Norwich 2 - 1 Nott'm Forest”, in BBC Sport‎^[1]:

     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.

7. (intransitive) To move briskly but sedately.

   The duchess sailed haughtily out of the room.

8. (card games, transitive) To deal out (cards) from a distance by impelling them across a surface.
   • 2007, Johnny Hughes, Texas Poker Wisdom, page 22:

     He would sit his hat across the room, and we would sail cards into it.

• Sail on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Sail in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)

• Lasi, Alis, LISA, Lias, lias, sial, Isla, Lais, ails, SiAl, LIAs, lais, Ilsa, Lisa

Borrowed from Romance, compare Old French seille.

• IPA^(key): /s̺ai̯l/ [s̺ai̯l]

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ai̯l
• Hyphenation: sail

sail inan

1. plot (area or land)

   Synonym: alor

2. scope, field

   Synonyms: arlo, alor

3. department (subdivision of an organization)

• “sail”, in Euskaltzaindiaren Hiztegia [Dictionary of the Basque Academy] (in Basque), Euskaltzaindia [Royal Academy of the Basque Language]
• “sail”, in Orotariko Euskal Hiztegia [General Basque Dictionary], Euskaltzaindia, 1987–2005

Borrowed from English sail. Doublet of zeil.

• IPA^(key): /seːl/
• Hyphenation: sail
• Rhymes: -eːl

sail n (plural sails)

1. (nautical) the fin or sail of a submarine

   Synonym: toren

• IPA^(key): /sˠalʲ/

From Old Irish sal, from Proto-Celtic *salā.

sail f (genitive singular saile)

1. dirt, dross, impurity

   sail mhiotail ― metal dross

2. stain, defilement

   sail pheaca ― the stain of sin

• sal

• salach
• salachar
• salaigh

• Gregory Toner, Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, Dagmar Wodtko, editors (2019), “sal”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language
• Dinneen, Patrick S. (1904) “sal”, in Foclóir Gaeḋilge agus Béarla, 1st edition, Dublin: Irish Texts Society, page 589
• Ó Dónaill, Niall (1977) “sail”, in Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla, Dublin: An Gúm, →ISBN
• “sail”, in New English-Irish Dictionary, Foras na Gaeilge, 2013–2025

From Old Irish sail, from Proto-Celtic *salixs (whence also Welsh helyg, Breton halegen).

sail f (genitive singular saileach, nominative plural saileacha)

1. willow (any of various trees or shrubs in the genus Salix)

Variant declension:

• saileach
• saileog

• Gregory Toner, Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, Dagmar Wodtko, editors (2019), “sail”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language
• Dinneen, Patrick S. (1904) “sail”, in Foclóir Gaeḋilge agus Béarla, 1st edition, Dublin: Irish Texts Society, page 587
• Ó Dónaill, Niall (1977) “sail”, in Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla, Dublin: An Gúm, →ISBN

• IPA^(key): [salʲ]

From Proto-Celtic *salixs (whence also Welsh helyg, Breton halegen), seemingly from Proto-Indo-European *sh₂el-ik-s or *sl̥h₂-ik-s. Cognate with Latin salix, Old English sealh (English sallow), and Ancient Greek ἑλίκη (helíkē), which all mean "willow", but the forms are hard to unify. The history of the word therefore must involve borrowing, possibly involving pre-Indo-European languages.^[1]

sail f (genitive sailech)

1. willow (any of various trees or shrubs in the genus Salix)

• Middle Irish: sail
  • Irish: sail
• ⇒ Middle Irish: *sailech
  • Irish: saileach
  • Manx: shellagh
  • Scottish Gaelic: seileach

• Gregory Toner, Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, Dagmar Wodtko, editors (2019), “sail”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

sail

1. inflection of sal:
   1. dative/accusative singular
   2. nominative/vocative/accusative dual

Alteration of saim.^[1]

• Homophone: saiu (Brazil)
• Rhymes: (Brazil) -iw
• Hyphenation: sa‧il

sail m (uncountable)

1. alternative form of saim (“fish oil”)

sail (nominative plural sails)

1. (nautical) sail

• sailan
• sailön

From Middle Welsh seil, from Proto-Brythonic *söl, from Latin solea (“sole”).

• IPA^(key): /sai̯l/
• Rhymes: -ai̯l

sail f (plural seiliau, not mutable)

1. base, basis, foundation

   Synonyms: bas, sawd, sylfaen

• cynsail (“precedent; premise”)
• di-sail (“baseless, unsupported”)
• seiliedig (“established; fundamental”)

• R. J. Thomas, G. A. Bevan, P. J. Donovan, A. Hawke et al., editors (1950–present), “sail”, in Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru Online (in Welsh), University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh & Celtic Studies