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Glite Dictionary
🍽️ The main dish ⛵ A ship's sail
main course

main course

1 9.9
A large square sail set on a ship's main mast to catch the wind
  • noun
  • Archaic
translation icon : vela mayor
  • Before setting sail, the crew ensured that the main sail, known as the main course, was properly unfurled.

Examples

  • The captain ordered the crew to adjust the rigging of the main course for better wind capture.

  • When at last they were ready, Larkin gave the signal to let loose the main course.

    Fiction book (1994)

  • As the ship navigated through the storm, the sailors struggled to maintain control of the main course.

Synonyms

mainsail
vsmain course
  • Specialized
7 8.0

A large cloth that catches the wind on the main mast of a sailing boat

is the principal square sail on the mainmast rather than a general low sail

Surface Forms

main course singular
main courses plural

Morphology

main + course

The given meaning is a specialised nautical/historical sense where 'course' denotes a type of square sail on the mainmast, not the common senses ('dish', 'path', etc.). A B1 learner who knows the ordinary meanings of 'main' and 'course' would not infer 'a principal square sail', so the phrase is not compositionally transparent in this sense.

Etymology

Main course in old sailing comes from ships where some square sails were called courses, and the one on the mainmast was the largest. Because it was the main sail there, sailors called it the main course, meaning the 'principal' sail.