to bail
5
7.0
- verb
- /beɪl/
- You need to bail the water from the boat before it sinks.
- bail water
- bail out the boat
- start bailing
Examples
-
Start bailing and try to figure out what you can jam in the hole?
Blog text (9) -
No more touching of sand, all you can do is bail water out.
-
In a short time, we had six men in the boat, all bailing.
Fiction book (1991) -
That's why we've got to bail out the water as fast as we can.
-
When waves topped the gunwales and poured inside, she set one hand to bailing and held on for dear life with the other.
Fiction book (2000) -
The little skiff carried three men, one rowing, one steering, and one bailing water as fast as he could to keep it afloat.
Fiction book (2002) -
After the storm, many people had to bail the excess water out of their canoes.
-
I grabbed a bucket to bail out the water that had collected in the bottom of the boat.
Synonyms
6
4.7
Remove water from a boat by scooping it out
1
6.1
To scoop water out of a boat and throw it over the side
Antonyms
Phrasal Verbs
Compounds
- Formal
8
6.6
A written promise to pay money if a person accused of a crime does not go to court
How Mechanized
Surface Forms
Etymology
Bail (to remove water) comes from an old word for a 'bucket' or the action of throwing water out of a boat. So to bail a boat is to scoop and send water out so it will not sink.