sailed

1. 1
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of sail.

   The schooner sailed past the lighthouse just after midnight.

   By the time we arrived, they had already sailed for open water.

   Note

   One regular -ed form does double duty here: the simple past (the schooner sailed at dawn) and the participle after have (they had already sailed). It carries every meaning of the verb, not only the nautical ones. A ball can have sailed through the air, and a guest can have sailed into a room, moving briskly but sedately. Keep it apart from the rig-describing adjective of three-sailed.

2. 2
   adjective

   Of a vessel, having its sails set.

   The fully sailed frigate bore down on the merchant convoy.

   A sailed ship under a steady breeze quickly outran its becalmed rival.

3. 3
   adjective

   Fitted with sails of a stated type or number.

   The square-sailed merchantman represented the dominant rig of its era.

   Coastal traders favored the gaff-sailed sloop for its easy handling.

   Similarrigged

   Note

   An adjective that rarely stands alone. It is the second half of a compound that names a vessel's rig, as in a three-sailed ship, with the number or kind of sail joined to the front by a hyphen. Here sail is singular and collective, the mariner's way of counting canvas. Because the adjective sorts ships into types, it does not compare: no ship is more three-sailed than another.

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