top-gallant yard
- noun
- Specialized
:
mástil superior
- The crew climbed to the top-gallant yard to unfurl the sail as the wind picked up.
Examples
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The top-gallant yard was raised to catch the wind.
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Sailors worked together to secure the top-gallant yard before the weather worsened.
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During the storm, a rope snapped and the top-gallant yard began to swing dangerously.
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The sailor adjusted the top-gallant yard carefully.
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To catch the strong wind, the crew hoisted the top-gallant yard high above the deck.
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The ship's speed increased noticeably when the top-gallant yard was positioned correctly.
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During the journey, the sailors needed to replace the worn rigging of the top-gallant yard for safety.
Synonyms
5
9.1
A long pole on a ship's mast that holds a square sail
A long horizontal pole high on a sailing ship that holds the sail above the topsail
Surface Forms
Morphology
top-gallant + yard
The compound is compositionally modifier + noun: 'top-gallant' suggests something high on the mast and 'yard' is a spar, so a learner who knows the constituents can infer it is a spar high on the mast. However, the precise technical sense (the specific spar from which the topgallant sail is set, located above the topsail yard) is specialized nautical knowledge and not fully predictable from the parts, making the expression only partially transparent.
Etymology
The noun top-gallant yard comes from sailors' words for its parts. The top and gallant show it sits high on the mast, and yard was what sailors called the long pole that holds a sail, so the phrase means 'the horizontal pole high on the mast'.