to make sail
1
8.1
- phrasal verb
- Archaic
:
zarpar
- We made sail early in the morning to catch the breeze.
Examples
-
What we need to do is make sail for Port Royal with all haste.
-
Get ready to make sail.
-
All hands make sail !
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Come on, snap to and make sail.
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Then Henry Belt said, "Make sail."
Fiction book (1992) -
All hands aloft to make sail!
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- Mr. Bellows, make sail!
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All hands, make sail!
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Continue to make sail.
-
Prepare to make sail.
Synonyms
66
2.4
To begin a journey to go to another place
25
2.9
To start a journey by boat or ship
18
4.4
To get on a ship, plane, or other vehicle to begin a journey
3
3.9
To begin a journey to a place
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'to begin sailing' is directly and predictably derived from combining 'make' (to cause or bring about) with 'sail' (to go by boat/ship); a B1 learner who knows both constituents can infer this sense. The construction follows normal compositional/causative patterns in English (similar to 'make [something] happen' or 'make a journey'), although it is somewhat formal/nautical in register.
Etymology
The phrase make sail comes from ships, where sailors would literally make the sail by raising the big cloth so it could catch the wind and move the boat. That's why it means 'to begin sailing'.