1
: the act of sailing a ship nearer the wind
2
: the forward edge of a fore-and-aft sail
luffed; luffing; luffs
: to turn the head of a ship toward the wind
Examples of luff in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
Julia Zaltzman, Robb Report, 15 Mar. 2024
The luff along the edges, the abundance of wind along the reach of the river, the arch and tip of the boat in relation to the air and the water; a boy, one hand on his tiller, the other on the rope, ducking down but not far enough.
—David Means, Harper's Magazine, 23 Nov. 2021
Rene Rodriguez, miamiherald, 5 Sep. 2017
Noun
This alleviates a once-common issue where the luff tape or bolt rope on large sailing yachts became chaffed by the compression of the battens, which often caused the in-boom furling mainsails to fail.
—Julia Zaltzman, Robb Report, 15 Mar. 2024
The luff along the edges, the abundance of wind along the reach of the river, the arch and tip of the boat in relation to the air and the water; a boy, one hand on his tiller, the other on the rope, ducking down but not far enough.
—David Means, Harper's Magazine, 23 Nov. 2021
Verb
Smaller cranes, such as luffing or mobile cranes, are laid flat on the ground during a storm and do not pose a threat.
—Rene Rodriguez, miamiherald, 5 Sep. 2017
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'luff.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Dictionary Entries Near luff
Cite this Entry
“Luff.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/luff. Accessed 18 Apr. 2024.
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