yawl

noun

1
: a ship's small boat : jolly boat
2
: a fore-and-aft rigged sailboat carrying a mainsail and one or more jibs with a mizzenmast far aft

Illustration of yawl

Illustration of yawl
  • yawl 2

Examples of yawl in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
The ship's captain ordered the crew to the yawl boat. Caitlin Looby, jsonline.com, 22 Sep. 2025 Captain William Griffin and his crew escaped, hopping on the ship’s yawl boat, in time to see the ship and its iron ore cargo vanish underwater. Brian Anthony Hernandez, PEOPLE, 21 Sep. 2025 Water poured in too fast for the crew to pump it out, and the ship's captain ordered the eight-man crew onto the yawl boat. Julia Gomez, USA Today, 17 Sep. 2025 Dove/Torr Cottage, Centerport After a decade living on their yawl in Huntington Harbor and a stint upstate after his mother died, artists Arthur Dove and Helen Torr were able to purchase an old post-office building perched alongside Titus Mill Pond in 1938. airmail.news, 27 July 2024 Prior to the incident, Wilson had been aboard a 52-foot yawl named the Emerald with friends Oster and Colleen McGovern. Nicole Briese, Peoplemag, 24 May 2024 The crew, all feeling the effects of the cold and the wet, rowed eight hours in the yawl through the waves of Lake Michigan before landing in Algoma at about 2 p.m. Christopher Clough, USA TODAY, 5 Sep. 2023 The emergency prompted Captain John Higgins and his crew of eight to jump ship, arriving to Algoma after rowing for eight hours in the ship’s small yawl boat. Adela Suliman, Washington Post, 2 Sep. 2023 The emergency prompted Captain John Higgins and his crew of eight to jump ship, arriving to Algoma after rowing for eight hours in the ship's small yawl boat. Adela Suliman, BostonGlobe.com, 2 Sep. 2023

Word History

Etymology

Low German jolle

First Known Use

1670, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler
The first known use of yawl was in 1670

Browse Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Yawl.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/yawl. Accessed 30 Sep. 2025.

Kids Definition

yawl

noun
: a sailboat having two masts with the shorter one behind the rudder

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