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A float; a raft. Three vessels under sail, and one at anchor, above Split Rock, and behind it the radeau Thunderer. W. Irving.

A sail, or any piece of canvas. [Nautical Slang] Our ship was a clipper with every rag set. Lowell. Rag bolt, an iron pin with barbs on its shank to retain it in place. -- Rag carpet, a carpet of which the weft consists of narrow of cloth sewed together, end to end. -- Rag dust, fine particles of ground-up rags, used…

Rent or worn into tatters, or till the texture is broken; as, a ragged coat; a ragged sail.

To walk, ride, or sail, from place to place, without any determinate object in view; to roam carelessly or irregularly; to rove; to wander; as, to ramble about the city; to ramble over the world. He that is at liberty to ramble in perfect darkness, what is his liberty better than if driven up and down as a bubble by th…

To sail or pass in a direction parallel to or near; as, to range the coast.

To commit rape upon; to ravish. raped first by their assailant, and then by the Justice system. Corresponds to 2nd rape, n. 5. To rape and ren. See under Rap, v. t., to snatch.

A fixed daily allowance of provisions assigned to a soldier in the army, or a sailor in the navy, for his subsistence.

To assail, annoy, or stun with a ratting noise. Sound but another [drum], and another shall As loud as thine rattle the welkin's ear. Shak.

A fine quality of sailcloth. Ham. Nav. Encyc.

To sail on the wind, as from one point of tacking to another, or with the ind nearly abeam. To reach after or at, to make efforts to attain to or obtain. He would be in the mind reaching after a positive idea of infinity. Locke.

To bat back (the ball) when served. Receiving ship, one on board of which newly recruited sailors are received, and kept till drafted for service.

r from astronomical observations, or from the record of the courses steered and distances sailed as shown by compass and log, -- in the latter case called dead reckoning (see under Dead); -- also used fro dead reckoning in contradistinction to observation.

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.

A piece of canvas sewed across a sail to strengthen it in the part where the eyelet holes for reefing are made. Totten.

Originally, a gondola race in Venice; now, a rowing or sailing race, or a series of such races.

e to which one repairs; a haunt; a resort. [R.] There the fierce winds his tender force assail And beat him downward to his first repair. Dryden.

ck; to force to return; to check the advance of; to repulse as, to repel an enemy or an assailant. Hippomedon repelled the hostile tide. Pope. They repelled each other strongly, and yet attracted each other strongly. Macaulay.

retail my conquest won." Shak. He is wit's peddler, and retails his wares At wakes and wassails. Shak.

for the sentinels to forbear challenging. "Sound a reveille." Dryden. For at dawning to assail ye Here no bugles sound reveille. Sir W. Scott.

at a constant angle; -- called also rhumb line, and loxodromic curve. See Loxodromic. To sail on a rhumb, to sail continuously on one course, following a rhumb line.