mainsheetn.
/ˈmeɪnʃiːt/, U.S. /ˈmeɪnˌʃit/ 1. Nautical. The rope which controls the boom of the mainsail when set. Also figurative.
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society > travel > travel by water > vessel, ship, or boat > equipment of vessel > masts, rigging, or sails > rigging > [noun] > running rigging > sheet or brace
sheet1336
swing-rope1336
shoot1405
mainbrace1485
mainsheet1485
top-sheet1485
smite1494
tailing-rope1495
tail-rope1495
brace1626
stern-sheets1626
trimmers1630
fore-sheet1669
jib-sheet1825
boom-sheet1836
1485 Naval Acct. in B. Sandahl Middle Eng. Sea Terms (1958) II. 68 Mayne shetes.
1575 G. Gascoigne Dan Bartholmew in Posies 80 Yet hauld I in the mayne-sheate of the minde.
1596 E. Spenser Second Pt. Faerie Queene v. xii. sig. Y5 He..strikes his sayles, and vereth his mainsheat . View more context for this quotation
a1637 B. Jonson Timber 1914 in Wks. (1640) III The maine sheat, and the Boulin.
1694 Acct. Several Late Voy. (1711) i. 163 We..veered out the main-Sheet to ware the Ship.
1762 W. Falconer Shipwreck ii. 18 Let the main-sheet fly!
1862 G. P. Marsh Lect. Eng. Lang. (new ed.) xi. 164 A sailor will not be likely to interlard his go-ashore talk with clew-lines, main-sheets, and halliards.
1892 R. L. Stevenson & L. Osbourne Wrecker xxiii. 364 Set the cook for'ard with the heads'ls, and the two others at the main sheet.
1965 E. A. Pearson Lure of Sailing ii. 46 The mainsheet controls the in-and-out movement of the boom and, therefore, the sail itself.
1988 Yachting World Oct. 104/3 The mainsail itself is large..but it is easily managed by the six-part mainsheet.
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the world > food and drink > drink > intoxicating liquor > distilled drink > rum > [noun] > rum and water
rum and water?1750
seven-water grog1834
sou'-wester1848
mainsheet1873
bubbly1902
1873 C. J. G. Rampini Lett. from Jamaica 164 To wash down all the delicacies we had penn punch..main sheet, sangaree,..and a host of ‘beverages’.
1882 Pall Mall Gaz. 20 May 4/2 Main-sheet is weak rum-and-water..and it seems to derive its quaintly expressive name from the native habit of taking constant pulls at it all day long.
1890 Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. June 784 An old man invited to have a drink of mainsheet.
Compounds
General attributive (in sense 1), as mainsheet-block, mainsheet-horse, mainsheet-kevel.
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1840 F. Marryat Poor Jack xxvii. 187 The bight..he belayed..to the main-sheet kevel.
1867 W. H. Smyth & E. Belcher Sailor's Word-bk. Mainsheet-horse, a kind of iron dog fixed at the middle of a wooden beam, stretching across a craft's stern, from one quarter stanchion to the other; on it the mainsheet-block travels.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2000; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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