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Glite Dictionary
buntline

buntline

9.9
A rope at the bottom of a square sail that sailors pull to lift it to the yard
  • noun
  • Specialized
translation icon : buntline
  • The crew worked together to tighten the buntline before setting sail in the morning.

Examples

  • Tighten the buntlines on the foresail!

    Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007)

  • To raise the square sail, the sailor quickly adjusted the buntline to ensure it was secure.

  • He expertly used the buntline to pull the sail upward, optimizing the ship's performance in the wind.

Synonyms

halyard
vsbuntline
  • Specialized
5 9.9

A rope that raises and lowers sails or flags on a ship

pulls the sail up from its bottom toward the yard rather than from above
brail
vsbuntline
  • Archaic
9.9

A small rope used to pull a sail up or in

is attached at the sail bottom to pull it up toward the yard

Compounds

buntline coil
  • Specialized
9.9

A neat way of coiling rope so it does not tangle, often on ships

Surface Forms

buntline singular
buntlines plural

Morphology

buntline = bunt + line (semi-transparent) = bunt + line

The composition 'bunt' + 'line' is literal (a line for the bunt), but 'bunt' is a specialized nautical term many learners will not know, so the meaning is not fully obvious to average learners.

Etymology

Buntline comes from bunt, the part of a sail sailors 'gather' into a small 'bundle', plus line meaning 'rope'. So a buntline is the rope used to pull the sail up into that bundle.