Halyard

//ˈhæljə(ɹ)d// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A rope used to raise or lower a sail, flag, spar or yard.

    "At last I got my knife and cut the halyards. The peak dropped instantly, a great belly of loose canvas floated broad upon the water […]"

  2. 2
    a rope for raising or lowering a sail or flag wordnet
  3. 3
    A rope used to extend a ladder.

Synonyms

All synonyms
halliardriggingrope

Example

More examples

"At last I got my knife and cut the halyards. The peak dropped instantly, a great belly of loose canvas floated broad upon the water […]"

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English halier, from halen (“to haul”) + -iere (“-er”), with misconstrual of -ier as yard. Compare lanyard.

Related phrases

main halyardthroat halyard

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