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Webster 1913 Edition


Taffrail

Taff′rail

,
Noun.
[D.
tafereel
a panel, picture, fr.
tafel
table, fr. L.
tabula
. See
Table
.]
(Naut.)
The upper part of a ship’s stern, which is flat like a table on the top, and sometimes ornamented with carved work; the rail around a ship's stern.
[Written also
tafferel
.]

Definition 2024


taffrail

taffrail

English

Naval Captain on the Poop Deck Taffrail, by William Heysmann Overend

Noun

taffrail (plural taffrails)

  1. (nautical) The curved wooden top of the stern of a sailing man-of-war or East Indiaman, usually carved or decorated.
  2. (nautical) The rail around the stern of a ship.
    • 1833, Edgar Allan Poe, "MS. Found in a Bottle,"
      One evening, leaning over the taffrail, I observed a very singular, isolated cloud, to the N.W.
    • 1851, Herman Melville, Moby-Dick, Chapter 29,
      [] with heavy, lumber-like pace he was measuring the ship from taffrail to mainmast []
    • See also citations under tafferel.
  3. (nautical) The deck area at the stern of a vessel.

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