close-hauled

1. 1.

   having the sails trimmed for sailing as close to the wind as possible

   Similarclose

   seafaring

Questions about close-hauled

What does close-hauled mean?

close-hauled means "having the sails trimmed for sailing as close to the wind as possible".

How many syllables are in close-hauled?

close-hauled has 3 syllables: close--hau-led. The stress falls on "close-".

Is close-hauled a common word?

close-hauled is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.