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

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

One who reefs; -- a name often given to midshipmen. Marryat.

The process of taking in a reef. Reefing bowsprit, a bowsprit so rigged that it can easily be run in or shortened by sliding inboard, as in cutters.

Full of reefs or rocks.

The lower reef of fore and aft sails; also, the upper reef of topsails. Ham. Nav. Encyc.

The last reef in a fore-and-aft sail, taken to steady the ship.

Having all the reefs taken in; -- said of a sail.

Proof. [Obs.] Chaucer.

mily descended from Mohammed through his son-in-law Ali and daughter Fatima. The Grand Shereef is the governor of Mecca.

Consisting of three, or thrice repeated; triple; as, threefold justice. A threefold cord is not quickly broken. Eccl. iv. 12.

The quantity or number which fills a tree.

A coral island or islands, consisting of a belt of coral reef, partly submerged, surrounding a central lagoon or depression; a lagoon island.

er ! Pope. Barrier gate, a heavy gate to close the opening through a barrier. -- Barrier reef, a form of coral reef which runs in the general direction of the shore, and incloses a lagoon channel more or less extensive. -- To fight at barriers, to fight with a barrier between, as a martial exercise. [Obs.]…

tilaginous case inclosing the brain. -- Brain coral, Brain stone coral (Zoöl), a massive reef-building coral having the surface covered by ridges separated by furrows so as to resemble somewhat the surface of the brain, esp. such corals of the genera Mæandrina and Diploria. -- Brain fag (Med.), brain weariness. See C…

A wave breaking into foam against the shore, or against a sand bank, or a rock or reef near the surface. The breakers were right beneath her bows. Longfellow.

o leap or pass by, or over, without touching or fallure; as, to clear a hedge; to clear a reef.

A circle; a continent. [Obs.] The tryne compas [the threefold world containing earth, sea, and heaven. Skeat.] Chaucer. Azimuth compass. See under Azimuth. -- Beam compass. See under Beam. -- Compass card, the eircular card attached to the needles of a mariner's compass, on which are marked the thirty-two points or r…

n very erroneously called coral insects. -- Coral fish. See in the Vocabulary. -- Coral reefs (Phys. Geog.), reefs, often of great extent, made up chiefly of fragments of corals, coral sands, and the solid limestone resulting from their consolidation. They are classed as fringing reefs, when they border the land; bar…

ed fish of the genera Chætodon, Pomacentrus, Apogon, and related genera, which live among reef corals.