REEF • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • 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

... executed so delicate a piece of workmanship, but he had never seen its equal. Every curve of the exquisite-hued waves was studied from the swell that sometimes swept grandly in from the lake on the long reef of rocks a few miles above St. Ignace. The form of the goddess was modelled from his remembrance of the Greek antique. It was a gem worthy of an emperor. What ...

— Stories by American Authors, Volume 6 • Various

... straggling ridge of rocks which stretches for hundreds of yards across the marine thoroughfare, and also obstructs the western approach to Plymouth Harbor. But at a point some nine and a half miles south of Rame Head on the mainland the reef rises somewhat abruptly to the surface, so that at low-water two or three ugly granite knots are bared, which tell only too poignantly the complete destruction they could wreak upon a vessel which had the temerity or the ill luck to scrape over them at high-tide. Even ...

— Seeing Europe with Famous Authors - Vol. II Great Britain And Ireland, Part Two • Francis W. Halsey

... of her own not to be too much of a drag upon him; and—best of all (and this was most important to the heir of Walnut Hill)—had the best blood of the State circling in her veins. Whether this intimacy might drift into something closer, compelling him to take a reef in his sails, never troubled him. It was not the first time that he had steered his craft between the Scylla of matrimony and the Charybdis of scandal, and he had not the slightest doubt of his being able ...

— The Tides of Barnegat • F. Hopkinson Smith

... "Those are grannies. They would jam so that you'd never untie 'em, besides being ugly. There's wrong ways even in doing up a string. See here." He rapidly twisted the ends together into a reef-knot. "There's strength and beauty together," he said. "Look how neat it is, the ends tidy along the standing part, all so neat as pie. Besides, it'd never jam. Watch how I do it, and then try it ...

— Jim Davis • John Masefield

... to go; but I asked which way he went, and he pointed south. I made signs that I would go with him, and he laughed at first, but then, being short of men, took me to help work the ship. So I came to talk after their manner, and to heave on ropes, and to reef the stiff sails in sudden squalls, and to take my turn at the wheel. But it was not strange, for the blood of my fathers was the blood of the men ...

— The Son of the Wolf • Jack London

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