Mainyard

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The yard of the mainmast, from which the mainsail is hung

    "The sails were split, the mainyard shivered, the wind blowing fresh, the night setting in; and all our chance was to make for Corfu--or, as F. pathetically called it, 'a watery grave.'"

Example

More examples

"The sails were split, the mainyard shivered, the wind blowing fresh, the night setting in; and all our chance was to make for Corfu--or, as F. pathetically called it, 'a watery grave.'"

Etymology

From main + yard.

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