Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A sliding loop of rope or chain by which a running yard or gaff is connected to, while still being able to move vertically along, the mast.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Same as parel.
  • noun The rope or chain by which the middle of a yard is fastened to the mast; a breast-rope or breast-chain. Also parral.
  • noun In architecture, a chimney-piece; the ornaments or dressing of a fireplace.
  • A variant of parel.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun nautical A sliding loop of rope or metal, around the mast of a ship, to which a yard or gaff is fitted

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English perel, parrail, short for appareil, apparel, rigging; see apparel.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

French appareil.

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Examples

  • There was a period of time, filled only by the clicking of the pawls and the sounds of the creaking parrel and the running gear.

    The Ghost Pirates 2007

  • Simultaneously, there was the shrieking of a parrel, up the main; and I knew that someone, or something, had let go the main-topsail haul-yards.

    The Ghost Pirates 2007

  • The noise of the canvas on high resembled the stirring of pinions, and the cheep of a block, the grind of a parrel, helped the illusion, as though the sounds were the voices of huge birds restlessly beating their pinions aloft.

    Stories by English Authors: the Sea Various

  • "Wheneffer," he said, "you need a parrel of flour or something, you comes to me py my store."

    The Spread Eagle and Other Stories Gouverneur Morris 1914

  • Simultaneously, there was the shrieking of a parrel, up the main; and I knew that someone, or something, had let go the main-topsail haul-yards.

    The Ghost Pirates: Chapter 14 1909

  • There was a period of time, filled only by the clicking of the pawls and the sounds of the creaking parrel and the running gear.

    The Ghost Pirates: Chapter 14 1909

  • Listen ter hiz wurds: 'An' sebun wimmin shall tek hol 'uv wun man in dat day, sayin' we will eat our own bread an 'wear our own' parrel; only let us be called by Thy name; tek Thou erway our reproach. '

    John Jasper: The Unmatched Negro Philosopher and Preacher William Eldridge 1908

  • Some of the men ran to let go the haulyards and lower the sail, but the parrel jammed and the yard would not come down.

    She Henry Rider Haggard 1890

  • Her maintop-mast was come by the board about six foot above the cap, and fell forward, the head of the topgallant-mast hanging in the fore-shrouds by the stay; at the same time the parrel of the mizzen-topsail-yard by some accident giving way, the mizzen-topsail-braces

    The Life, Adventures & Piracies of the Famous Captain Singleton Daniel Defoe 1696

  • We have poor narrow spirits, and do not take entire truth in its full comprehension, and so we are as unfit and unequal discerners of the gospel, and receivers of it, as he that would judge of a sentence by one word, of a book by one page, of a harmony by one note, and of the world by one parrel of it.

    The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning Hugh Binning 1640

Comments

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  • There once was a parrot named Darryl

    Who perched by the store’s pickle barrel.

    In his salty past

    He’d sailed ‘fore the mast

    So chattered of halyard and parrel.

    November 5, 2018