1
: a rope fastened to the leech of a sail and used for hauling the sail up or in
2
: a dip net with which fish are hauled aboard a boat from a purse seine or trap
brailed; brailing; brails
Examples of brail in a Sentence
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Idaho Statesman, 2 Mar. 2016
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Verb
Some of the traps had watchmen, and the fishermen would cover the front of their boats with black tarps and sneak up to the watchmen’s sheds and hammer the doors shut and then brail the fish out of the nets and sell the fish back to the canneries.
—Idaho Statesman, 2 Mar. 2016
Cite this Entry
“Brail.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/brail. Accessed 2 Jul. 2025.
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