(~s, ~ing, ~ed)
Frequency: The word is one of the 3000 most common words in English.
1.
Sails are large pieces of material attached to the mast of a ship. The wind blows against the ~s and pushes the ship along.
The white ~s billow with the breezes they catch.
N-COUNT
2.
You say a ship ~s when it moves over the sea.
The trawler had ~ed from the port of Zeebrugge...
VERB: V prep/adv
3.
If you ~ a boat or if a boat ~s, it moves across water using its ~s.
I shall get myself a little boat and ~ her around the world...
For nearly two hundred miles she ~ed on, her ~s hard with ice...
VERB: V n prep, V adv/prep
4.
If a person or thing ~s somewhere, they move there smoothly and fairly quickly.
We got into the lift and ~ed to the top floor...
VERB: V prep/adv
5.
see also ~ing
6.
When a ship sets ~, it leaves a port.
Christopher Columbus set ~ for the New World in the Santa Maria.
PHRASE: V inflects, oft PHR prep
7.
to ~ close to the wind: see wind