1740 J. Dean True Narr. Ship Sussex 2 They met with a hard Gale of Wind..which obliged them immediately to clew up their Top-sails, and hand them without reefing.

1758 J. Blake Plan Marine Syst. 7 Exercising those who are received into the service..in handing and reefing of sails.

1829 F. Marryat Naval Officer I. viii. 224 Many a sail is split by bad reefing.

1862 Internat. Exhib.: Illustr. Catal. Industr. Dept. II. xii. §2665 The old defective and dangerous method of reefing by the men going aloft and out on the yards.

1904 J. London Sea-wolf xxxix. 362 I had not reckoned upon the colossal task the reefing of three sails meant for one man.

1933 Mariner's Mirror 19 93 The men on the yards would be greatly impeded in the work of reefing and furling if the studdingsail booms were in place.

2007 Kingston (Ont.) Whig-Standard (Nexis) 17 Sept. 5 If a sailor could lend a hand in any weather conditions, reduce a sail's area by reefing, and steer under all wind and sea condition, then the job was his.

1843 J. H. Ingraham Mark Manly iv. 13/1 It now blew a reefing breeze and she carried all her canvass at the risk of running under.

1897 Outing 30 362/2 The race was sailed with a reefing breeze.

1956 A. F. Loomis ‘Hotspur’ Story 118 I was sailing in a reefing breeze.

1983 Yachting (Nexis) Sept. 106 Slack air at the start hardened into a reefing breeze.

1846 N. Wales Chron. 14 Apr. 2/6 (advt.) Sailors' clothing. Blue pilot reefing jackets.

1849 H. Melville Mardi I. xv. 70 He was quite as busy..as ever..with great patches from the skirts of a condemned reefing jacket, pannelling the seats of our ‘ducks’.

1894 Idler Sept. 220 A reformed world, in which every man should..sit down in a reefing jacket to a dinner of pork and beans.

1993 Vancouver Sun (Nexis) 24 July c3 All the kids had reefers in those days. The full name was ‘reefing jacket’ because it was the kind of coat worn by midshipmen in the days of sail.

1847 Hogg's Weekly Instructor 28 Aug. 52/1 The great mainsail of the fine sloop gives one ponderous flap, and the reefing points patter like hail upon its distending disc.

1984 J. Seymour Forgotten Arts (1985) 115/2 Some sails have up to three rows of reefing points, and if you ever need to use the highest row, you shouldn't be out sailing in a wind that strong!

1859 Colonial Mining Jrnl. May 143/1 Reefing bids fair to be the main feature, but alluvial workings are also likely to turn out satisfactorily.

1865 Mining Surveyors' & Registrars' Rep. (Dept. Mines, Victoria) Sept. 46 The southern or Gipps Land slope of the Great Dividing Range..will become one vast reefing district.

1889 Proc. Royal Geogr. Soc. 11 496 There is every prospect of the country repaying a careful search for gold, the indications tending towards the existence of a reefing field rather than alluvial deposits.

1906 J. M. Bell in P. Galvin N.Z. Mining Handbk. 5 Reefing is being carried out at a number of places.

1952 W. F. Heinz Prospecting for Gold 21 Reefing is made more difficult by the bush cover over most of the hill country.

2007 Kalgoorlie (W. Austral.) Miner (Nexis) 29 Mar. 9 Among the first of 42 applications for reefing claims was that of Graves and Hogarth.

1889 Atlantic Monthly July 115/1 When the driver moves the bit to and fro in his mouth, the effect is to enliven and stimulate the horse... If this motion be performed with an exaggerated movement of the arm, it is called reefing.

1896 Harper's Mag. Sept. 514/2 This artifice is often beautifully performed by riders of running horses and by drivers of trotters. In an exaggerated form it is called ‘reefing’.

1840 Morning Chron. (Electronic text) 8 Jan. A new description of paddle, called the reefing paddle, is about to be substituted—this new paddle being the invention of the celebrated Mr. Samuel Hall.

1852 Mechanics' Mag. 4 Dec. 441 (heading) Cunningham's patent self-reefing topsails.]

1856 Times 24 Mar. 9/4 The facilities of Cunningham's patent reefing topsails, with which the Pera is fitted, were exhibited and explained to those on board.

1878 A. H. Markham Great Frozen Sea i. 3 Both ships were fitted with..patent reefing and furling topsails.

1933 C. N. Longridge Cutty Sark II. vii. 150 It is a reefing sail, the reef band being about one-third down from the head.

1981 N.Y. Times (Nexis) 22 June c6/2 They had a basic double-head rig with reefing mainsail, and they used spinnakers and a genoa jib in lesser winds.

2007 A. Wyllie Confederate States Navy 171 Both [ships] were bark-rigged with iron fore and mainmasts..and patent reefing topsails.