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Luff

//lʌf// name, noun, verb

Definitions

Proper Noun
  1. 1
    A surname.
Noun
  1. 1
    The vertical edge of a sail that is closest to the direction of the wind.

    "By easing the halyard, the luff of the sail was made to sag to leeward."

  2. 2
    the act of sailing close to the wind wordnet
  3. 3
    The act of sailing a ship close to the wind.
  4. 4
    (nautical) the forward edge of a fore-and-aft sail that is next to the mast wordnet
  5. 5
    The roundest part of a ship's bow.
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  1. 6
    The forward or weather leech of a sail, especially of the jib, spanker, and other fore-and-aft sails.
Verb
  1. 1
    To shake due to being trimmed improperly. intransitive

    "I thought how my life is like a little boat and I must hold the tiller steady against the buffeting of wind and waves, and how sometimes, like this morning, I lose my hold somehow and the sail luffs helplessly and the little vessel wallows, turning this way and that in the swell."

  2. 2
    flap when the wind is blowing equally on both sides wordnet
  3. 3
    To bring the ship's head up closer to the wind. (Alternatively luff up) intransitive

    ""Helm there! Luff, luff a point! So; steady, man, steady!""

  4. 4
    sail close to the wind wordnet
  5. 5
    to let out (a sail) so that it luffs. transitive
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  1. 6
    To alter the vertical angle of the jib of a crane so as to bring it level with the load.

    "The tower is mounted on a slewing platform, which also carries the power plant and the counterweights, while the jib is supported and luffed by fixed pendant ropes."

Etymology

Etymology 1

From Old French lof. Collins English Dictionary states that this word is ultimately derived from Middle Dutch loef. Ellert Ekwall's Shakspere's Vocabulary: its etymological elements (1903) related this verb and loof instead to the East Frisian verb lofen, lufen, which would make it cognate to the French term lover.

Etymology 2

From Old French lof. Collins English Dictionary states that this word is ultimately derived from Middle Dutch loef. Ellert Ekwall's Shakspere's Vocabulary: its etymological elements (1903) related this verb and loof instead to the East Frisian verb lofen, lufen, which would make it cognate to the French term lover.

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