sails

Pluralsails

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of sail.

   The crew trimmed the sails to catch the shifting breeze.

   Tattered sails flapped against the mast after the gale.

   Note

   A regular plural that only some meanings of sail can take. The fabric and the boat trip count easily: sails trimmed, several sails in a summer. The senses for sail as a substance, or as the power of wind used for travel, stay uncountable and never add -s. The dated meaning of a vessel can go either way, so older prose may count ships in sail rather than sails.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of sail.

   He sails alone whenever the weather allows.

   The ferry sails between the two ports each morning.

   Note

   The -s form carries every meaning of the verb, not just the nautical ones. A ball sails over a fence, and a person sails into a room, moving briskly but sedately. A ferry that sails at noon is setting out, and it needs no object to do so. Next to a noun, only the sentence's grammar separates the ship sails from the ship's sails of canvas.

3. 3
   nounslang

   A shipboard nickname for the sailmaker, the crew member responsible for making and repairing a vessel's canvas.

   Sails spent the morning repairing the storm-damaged mainsail.

   When the jib split, the captain sent below for Sails.

   Similarsailmaker

   Note

   Shipboard slang that turns a trade into a name. It is capitalized and takes no article, like a personal name: the captain sends for Sails, not for the sails. In writing, those two marks are what separate it from the plural of the canvas itself. It belongs to crew talk and sea stories, not to formal accounts of a ship's company.

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