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Glite Dictionary
royal yard

royal yard

1 9.9
A long horizontal pole high on a sailing ship mast that holds the highest sail
  • noun
  • Archaic
translation icon : mástil real
  • During storms, it was risky work to furl the sails on the royal yard.

Examples

  • The ship's royal yard was damaged during the storm.

  • The royal yard must be hoisted carefully above the topgallant before setting the royal sail.

  • The sailors climbed up to the royal yard to adjust the highest sail.

  • He climbed up to the royal yard to adjust the sail.

  • The sailors climbed the rigging to adjust the royal yard for the new sail they were setting up.

  • To increase speed, the crew raised the royal yard just before the race began.

  • During the storm, the captain ordered the crew to lower the royal yard to prevent damage.

Surface Forms

royal yard singular
royal yards plural

Morphology

royal + yard

The phrase is a straightforward compound of 'royal' (here meaning the small upper sail) + 'yard' (a spar), so it denotes the spar from which the royal sail is set; the overall meaning is directly inferable from those constituent senses. It is domain-specific nautical vocabulary but still fully compositional, so a learner who knows the given word senses can predict the MWE meaning.

Etymology

Royal yard comes from old sailing ships and names the long horizontal beam, the yard, near the top of the mast that held the 'royal sail'. Because it carried the very highest sail, sailors called that beam the royal yard, and the name still means that high beam on a mast today.