noun, verb ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   A small rope used to truss up sails.
2. 2
   a small rope (one of several) used to draw a sail in wordnet
3. 3
   A thong of soft leather to bind up a hawk's wing.
4. 4
   a small net used to draw fish into a boat wordnet
5. 5
   A stock at each end of a seine to keep it stretched.

Show 2 more definitions

6. 6
   A rope or line used to suspend lights or scenery in a certain position.
7. 7
   The feathers around a hawk's rump. in-plural

Verb

1. 1
   To reef, shorten or strike sail using brails.

   "The winds blew at their own caprice and there was brailing and loosing of canvas."

2. 2
   haul fish aboard with brails wordnet
3. 3
   take in a sail with a brail wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

braidbrailingcablecordligamentligature

Example

More examples

"The winds blew at their own caprice and there was brailing and loosing of canvas."

Etymology

From Middle English brayle, from Old French braiel, from Medieval Latin bracale (“girdle”) (from bracae (“breeches”)).

Related phrases

throat brail

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.