cross-jackcro'jackn.
/ˈkrɒsdʒak//ˈkrɔːsdʒak//ˈkrɒdʒək/ Nautical.
A square sail bent to the lower yard of the mizen-mast.
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society > travel > travel by water > vessel, ship, or boat > equipment of vessel > masts, rigging, or sails > sail > [noun] > sail attached to lower yards > of mizzen-mast
cross-jack1626
1626 J. Smith Accidence Young Sea-men 17 A drift sayle, a crosiack, a netting sayle.
1769 W. Falconer Universal Dict. Marine Cross-jack, pronounced crojeck, a sail extended on the lower yard of the mizen-mast... This sail..is..very seldom used.
1820 W. Scoresby Acct. Arctic Regions II. 197 In 1816, I fitted a main-sail and cross-jack in the same way.
1858 Mercantile Marine Mag. 5 19 The sail taken off was the cross-jack and main-sail.
Compounds
attributive, as cross-jack brace; cross-jack yard n. (see quot. 1867). cross-jack-eyed adj. (Sailors' slang) = cross-eyed adj. at cross-eye n. Derivatives.
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1627 J. Smith Sea Gram. iii. 17 The Crossieacke Yard and Spretsaile Yard to be of a length.
1840 R. H. Dana Two Years before Mast xxiii. 69 I was stationed at the weather cross-jack braces.
1867 W. H. Smyth & E. Belcher Sailor's Word-bk. Cross-jack-yard..the lower yard on the mizen-mast, to the arms of which the clues of the mizen top-sail are extended..It is now very common in merchant ships to set a sail called a cross-jack upon this yard.
1892 Eng. Illustr. Mag. 9 849 Haul in your weather cro'jack brace!
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1893; most recently modified version published online June 2021).
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