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tiffness; to bend down, as flexible bodies; to be loose, yielding, limp. As loose it [the sail] flagged around the mast. T. Moore.

f an army toguard a line of march, or a fort projecting so as to command the side of an assailing body. They threw out flankers, and endeavored to dislodge their assailants. W. Irwing.

motion of anything broad and loose, or a stroke or sound made with it; as, the flap of a sail or of a wing.

ower the pitch of; to cause to sound less sharp; to let fall from the pitch. To flatten a sail (Naut.), to set it more nearly fore-and-aft of the vessel. -- Flattening oven, in glass making, a heated chamber in which split glass cylinders are flattened for window glass.

To sail; to float. [Obs.] And in frail wood on Adrian Gulf doth fleet. Spenser.

eat masses from the island. Macaulay. Floating anchor (Naut.), a drag or sea anchor; drag sail. -- Floating battery (Mil.), a battery erected on rafts or the hulls of ships, chiefly for the defense of a coast or the bombardment of a place. -- Floating bridge. (a) A bridge consisting of rafts or timber, with a floor o…

To move with quick vibrations or undulations; as, a sail flutters in the wind; a fluttering fan.

spring toward; to rush on; to attack suddenly. -- To fly in the face of, to insult; to assail; to set at defiance; to oppose with violence; to act in direct opposition to; to resist. -- To fly off, to separate, or become detached suddenly; to revolt. -- To fly on, to attack. -- To fly open, to open suddenly, or wit…

A light and fast-sailing ship. [Obs.] Beau. & Fl.

The lower edge of a sail.

That part of the boltrope to which the lower edge of a sail is sewed.

rd which the action of anything is directed, or the point toward which motion is made; We sailed from Peru for China and Japan. Bacon.

ion from athwart. R. H. Dana, Jr. -- Fore-and-aft rigged (Naut.), not rigged with square sails attached to yards, but with sails bent to gaffs or set on stays in the midship line of the vessel. See Schooner, Sloop, Cutter.

Designating the mast, sail, yard, etc., above the topmast; as, the fore-topgallant sail. See Sail.

A rope applied to the fore yardarm, to change the position of the foresail.

In merchant vessels, the forward part of the vessel, under the deck, where the sailors live.

The mast nearest the bow. Foremast hand or man (Naut.), a common sailor; also, a man stationed to attend to the gear of the foremast.

To advance or gain upon; -- said of a vessel that gains upon another when sailing closehauled.

To move heavily and slowly, as a ship after the sails are furled; to work one's way, as one ship in outsailing another; -- used especially in the phrase to forge ahead. Totten. And off she [a ship] forged without a shock. De Quincey.

To stop (a leak in a ship at sea) by drawing under its bottom a thrummed sail, so that the pressure of the water may force it into the crack. Totten.