from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
- n. The process of reefing (taking in a sail); an act of reefing; also used of clothing.
- n. A reef (seam of quartz).
- v. Present participle of reef.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English
- n. The process of taking in a reef.
from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. In upholstery, the gathering up of the material of a curtain, valance, or the like, as in short festoons.
- n. In mining, the process of taking out ore-rock.
Sorry, no etymologies found.
What we call the reefing clew is an eye, called a reefing grommet, set into the leech of the sail.
A line called the reefing line is led through the grommet, down to the boom, and forward to a cleat on larger boats, there’s a winch to help tighten the line.
"But the Navy has told us that 'reefing' is better because it would allow divers to go down on it and would preserve
"That reefing device is a winner!" young Winn cried, as he climbed out.
Number Eight is ready, and I know I've at last got that reefing down fine.
Two hours afterward, on San Pablo Bay, the wind was piping up and we were reefing down.
I have toiled all night, both watches on deck, in a typhoon off the coast of Japan, and been less exhausted than by two hours 'work at reefing down a thirty-foot sloop and heaving up two anchors on a lee shore in a screaming south-easter.
But I had not reckoned upon the colossal task the reefing of three sails meant for one man.
I had burst open the ends of my fingers at the very first, and during the reefing I had worked with tears of pain running down my cheeks.
When I am on the water reefing a sail or tacking in response to the wind and the waves, everything becomes really simple.