Nautical. Each of a pair of shrouds (shroud, n.2 1). Obsolete.

Nautical. A stay or strong rope reaching from the foremast-head towards the bowsprit end.

Nautical. The stay which extends from the maintop to the foot of the foremast.

a kind of stay.

That which holds the front position; the vanguard, hence the mainstay.

Nautical (often plural). Long ropes, slanting a little abaft, extending from the upper mast-heads to both sides or to the ‘channels’ of the ship…

the stay on which the jib is set.

‘A rope used to confine the bowsprit of a ship downward to the stem.‥ [Its use] is to draw down the bowsprit and keep it steady; and to…

(on a square-rigged ship) each of a pair of stays leading from the head of a topmast or topgallant mast to chainplates forward of the standing…

a stay running between the heads of the mainmast and foremast on a merchant ship, to which a tackle may be attached in order to load and unload…

Used in compounds. fore-topgallant-mast n. the mast above the fore-topmast; hence with sense of ‘of or belonging to the fore-topgallant-mast’, as for…

(see quot.).

a stay ‘used half-mast down when a mast requires support’ (Adm. Smyth).