REEF • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Reef

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noun

Reef n.

A chain or range of rocks lying at or near the surface of the water. See Coral reefs, under Coral.

(Mining.) A large vein of auriferous quartz; so called in Australia. Hence, any body of rock yielding valuable ore.

Reef builder (Zool.), any stony coral which contributes material to the formation of coral reefs.

Reef heron (Zool.), any heron of the genus Demigretta; as, the blue reef heron (Demigretta jugularis) of Australia.

Reef n. (Naut.) That part of a sail which is taken in or let out by means of the reef points, in order to adapt the size of the sail to the force of the wind. Note: From the head to the first reef-band, in square sails, is termed the first reef; from this to the next is the second reef; and so on. In fore-and-aft sails, which reef on the foot, the first reef is the lowest part.

Close reef, the last reef that can be put in.

Reef band. See Reef-band in the Vocabulary.

Reef knot, the knot which is used in tying reef pointss.

Reef line, a small rope formerly used to reef the courses by being passed spirally round the yard and through the holes of the reef.

Reef points, pieces of small rope passing through the eyelet holes of a reef-band, and used reefing the sail.

Reef tackle, a tackle by which the reef cringles, or rings, of a sail are hauled up to the yard for reefing.

To take a reef in, to reduce the size of (a sail) by folding or rolling up a reef, and lashing it to the spar.

verb

Reef v. t. (past & past part. reefed; pres. part. reefing) (Naut.) To reduce the extent of (as a sail) by rolling or folding a certain portion of it and making it fast to the yard or spar.

To reef the paddles, to move the floats of a paddle wheel toward its center so that they will not dip so deeply.

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Etymology of 'Reef'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Reef" Quotes from Famous Books

... over which the white-capped waves were running in high billows from the west. It soon became so rough that we had to take on board the small canoe which I had brought with me from Rat Portage in case of accident, and which was towing astern. On we swept over the high-rolling billows with a double reef in the lug-sail. Before us, far away, rose a rocky promontory, the extreme point of which we had to weather in order to make the mouth of Rainy River. Keeping the boat as close to the wind as she ...

— The Great Lone Land - A Narrative of Travel and Adventure in the North-West of America • W. F. Butler

... improving that day his progress about the deck was decidedly retrograde, for as the time went on and the Channel opened out, the wind from the north-west grew fresher and fresher, and the captain from time to time kept the men busy taking in a reef ...

— The Ocean Cat's Paw - The Story of a Strange Cruise • George Manville Fenn

... and then reckons up where he is. I travelled with a captain once, and so long as he stuck to dead-reckoning he was all right. He made out we were off Cairns, and that's just where we were; because we struck the Great Barrier Reef, and became a total wreck ten minutes after. With the cattle it's just the same. You'll reckon the cattle that you started with, add on each year's calves, subtract all that you sell,—that is, if you ever do ...

— An Outback Marriage • Andrew Barton Paterson

... was begun in so deductive a spirit as this, for the whole theory was thought out on the west coast of South America, before I had seen a true coral reef. I had therefore only to verify and extend my views by a careful examination of living reefs. But it should be observed that I had during the two previous years been incessantly attending to the effects on the shores of South America of the intermittent elevation of the land, ...

— The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin, Volume I • Francis Darwin

... weather looking somewhat wild in the west with the red light of the sun among the clouds there, and the dark heave of the swell running into a sickly crimson under the sun and then glowing out dusky again, I got them to treble-reef the mainsail and hoist it, and then thanking them, advised them to be off. Then, putting Cromwell to the tiller, I went forward with the others and set the topsail and forestaysail (the spritsail lying furled), ...

— The Frozen Pirate • W. Clark Russell

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