weather sheet
1
9.9
- noun
- Jargon
:
escota
- The crew quickly tightened the weather sheet to keep the sail steady during the storm.
Examples
-
The weather sheet is ready.
-
When tacking, always check that the weather sheet is properly secured.
-
Old sailing ships required a strong weather sheet to maintain course in rough winds.
-
Is the weather sheet loose?
-
The sailor adjusted the weather sheet to catch the optimal wind for sailing.
-
Using the weather sheet, he was able to steer the sailboat more efficiently.
-
The crew checked the weather sheet to ensure the sail was properly aligned with the wind.
Synonyms
8
8.0
A rope used on a boat to control a sail's angle to the wind
1
9.0
A rope attached to a sail corner used to control its angle
A rope used to pull the main sail and change its angle to the wind
How Strong
Surface Forms
Morphology
The compound is a direct composition of 'weather' (to maneuver a vessel to windward) and 'sheet' (a rope for controlling a sail); it names the sheet used for that weathering action. Given those constituent meanings, the MWE's function — a rope to regulate sail angle relative to the wind — is immediately inferable, so it is compositionally transparent.
Etymology
The term weather sheet comes from old sailing ships. The sheet was the rope on the side facing the wind, the weather side, that held a sail tight and let sailors set its angle, so the name came to mean 'a rope or chain used to control the sail's angle'.