What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Sail vs Clew - What's the difference?

sail | clew |

In context|nautical|lang=en terms the difference between sail and clew

is that sail is (nautical) a piece of fabric attached to a boat and arranged such that it causes the wind to drive the boat along the sail may be attached to the boat via a combination of mast, spars and ropes while clew is (nautical) (transitive and intransitive) to raise the lower corner(s) of (a sail).

As nouns the difference between sail and clew

is that sail is (nautical) a piece of fabric attached to a boat and arranged such that it causes the wind to drive the boat along the sail may be attached to the boat via a combination of mast, spars and ropes while clew is (obsolete) a roughly spherical mass or body.

As verbs the difference between sail and clew

is that sail is to be impelled or driven forward by the action of wind upon sails, as a ship on water; to be impelled on a body of water by steam or other power while clew is to roll into a ball.

sail

English

(wikipedia sail)

Etymology 1

From (etyl) 'to cut'. More at saw.

Noun

(en noun)
  • (nautical) A piece of fabric attached to a boat and arranged such that it causes the wind to drive the boat along. The sail may be attached to the boat via a combination of mast, spars and ropes.
  • * : Scene 1: 496-497
  • When we have laugh'd to see the sails conceive / And grow big-bellied with the wanton wind;
  • (uncountable) The power harnessed by a sail or sails, or the use this power for travel or transport.
  • A trip in a boat, especially a sailboat.
  • Let's go for a sail .
  • (dated) A sailing vessel; a vessel of any kind; a craft. Plural sail .
  • Twenty sail were in sight.
  • The blade of a windmill.
  • A tower-like structure found on the dorsal (topside) surface of submarines.
  • The floating organ of siphonophores, such as the Portuguese man-of-war.
  • (fishing) A sailfish.
  • We caught three sails today.
  • (paleontology) an outward projection of the
  • Anything resembling a sail, such as a wing.
  • * Spenser
  • Like an eagle soaring / To weather his broad sails .
    Hyponyms
    * See also
    Derived terms
    * balloon sail * by sail * drag sail * dragon sail * point of sail * sailback * sailboard * sailboat * sailcloth * sailer * sailfish * sailing * studding sail * set sail * take the wind out of someone's sails * topsail * working sail

    Etymology 2

    (etyl) , cognate to earlier Middle Low German segelen and its descendant Low German sailen.

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To be impelled or driven forward by the action of wind upon sails, as a ship on water; to be impelled on a body of water by steam or other power.
  • To move through or on the water; to swim, as a fish or a waterfowl.
  • To ride in a boat, especially a sailboat.
  • To set sail; to begin a voyage.
  • We sail for Australia tomorrow.
  • To move briskly and gracefully through the air.
  • * Shakespeare
  • As is a winged messenger of heaven, / When he bestrides the lazy pacing clouds, / And sails upon the bosom of the air.
  • * {{quote-news
  • , year=2011 , date=April 15 , author=Saj Chowdhury , title=Norwich 2 - 1 Nott'm Forest , work=BBC Sport citation , page= , passage=A hopeful ball from Forest right-back Brendan Moloney to the left edge of the area was met first by Ruddy but his attempted clearance rebounded off Tyson's leg and sailed in.}}
  • To move briskly.
  • Derived terms
    * sail close to the wind

    clew

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (obsolete) A roughly spherical mass or body.
  • * c. 1600 , , tr. Richard Surflet, Maison Rustique, or, The Countrie Farme :
  • If the whole troupe be diuided into many clewes , or round bunches, you need not then doubt but that there are many kings.
  • * 1796 , , The Narrative of a Five Years Expedition against the Revolted Negroes of Surinam :
  • Both these creatures, by forming themselves in a clew , have often more the appearance of excrescences in the bark, than that of animals.
  • (archaic) A ball of thread or yarn.
  • * c. 1604-5 , , All's Well That Ends Well , Act 1, Scene 3:
  • If it be ?o, you have wound a goodly clew :
    If it be not, for?wear't: howe'er, I charge thee,
  • * 1831 , :
  • A rare, precious, and never interrupted race of philosophers to whom wisdom, like another Ariadne, seems to have given a clew of thread which they have been walking along unwinding since the beginning of the world, through the labyrinth of human affairs.
  • * 1889 , ":
  • The Fairy Paribanou was at that time very hard at work, and, as she had several clews' of thread by her, she took up one, and, presenting it to Prince Ahmed, said: "First take this ' clew of thread...
  • * 1962 , , Pale Fire :
  • on one side of her lay a pair of carpet slippers and on the other a ball of red wool, the leading filament of which she would tug at every now and then with the immemorial elbow jerk of a Zemblan knitter to give a turn to her yarn clew and slacken the thread.
  • Yarn or thread as used to guide one's way through a maze or labyrinth; a guide, a clue.
  • *
  • Therto have I a remedie in my thoght,
    That, by a clewe of twyne, as he hath goon,
    The same wey he may returne anoon,
    Folwing alwey the threed, as he hath come.
  • * 1766 , , The Sermons of Mr. Yorick :
  • With this clew , let us endeavour to unravel this character of Herod as here given.
  • * 1841 , , The Murders in the Rue Morgue :
  • To this horrible mystery there is not as yet, we believe, the slightest clew .
  • * 1870 , , History of the Norman Conquest :
  • We may here have lighted on the clew to the great puzzle.
  • * 1917 , :
  • They had followed immediately behind him, thinking it barely possible that his actions might prove a clew to my whereabouts...
  • * 1923 , :
  • And I brought the only clew to be found.
  • * 1926 , Robertus Love, The Rise and Fall of Jesse James , University of Nebraska, 1990:
  • Not often did Jesse James leave a clew to his identity when he galloped away from a crime of violence, back into the mysterious Nowhere whence he came.
  • (nautical) The lower corner(s) of a sail to which a sheet is attached for trimming the sail (adjusting its position relative to the wind); the metal loop or cringle in the corner of the sail, to which the sheet is attached. On a triangular sail, the clew is the trailing corner relative to the wind direction.
  • * 1858 , Walter Mitchell,
  • 'Mid the rattle of blocks and the tramp of the crew,
    Hisses the rain of the rushing squall;
    The sails are aback from clew' to ' clew ,
    And now is the moment for "MAINSAIL, HAUL!"
  • * 1858 , The Atlantic Monthly , "":
  • "Clew'" is Saxon; "garnet" (from granato, a fruit) is Italian,—that is, the garnet- or pomegranate-shaped block fastened to the ' clew or corner of the courses, and hence the rope running through the block.
  • * 1894 , :
  • I went over and asked him to let down the clews or corners of the mainsail, which had been drawn up in order to lessen the useless flapping of the sail against the rigging.
  • * 1901 , :
  • "Run aft, Haldane, and you too, Spokeshave. Loosen the bunt of the mizzen-trysail and haul at the clew . That’ll bring her up to the wind fast enough, if the sail only stands it!"
  • (in the plural) The sheets so attached to a sail.
  • * 1913 ,
  • The canvas running up in a proud sweep,
    Wind-wrinkled at the clews , and white like lint,
  • (nautical, in the plural) The cords suspending a hammock.
  • * 2000 , Ralph W Danklefsen, The Navy I Remember , Xlibris 2000, p. 21:
  • He taught us how to attach the clews to the ends of the hammock and then lash it between jack stays.
  • * 1864 , Andrew Forrester, The Female Detective :
  • Now, the fact is, I had started because I thought I saw the end of a good clew .
  • * 1910 , "Duck Eats Yeast," The Yakima Herald :
  • Telltale marks around the pan of yeast gave him a clew to the trouble.
  • * Macaulay
  • The clew , without which it was perilous to enter the vast and intricate maze of Continental politics, was in his hands.

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • to roll into a ball
  • (nautical) (transitive and intransitive) to raise the lower corner(s) of (a sail)
  • See also

    * clew-garnet * clef * clue