Definition of "spritsail"

spritsail

noun
plural spritsails
1. (nautical) A form of three- or four-sided fore-and-aft sail and its rig, supporting the leech of the sail by means of a sprit.
  Quotations
  Finding it was like to overblow, we took in our Sprit-ſail, and ſtood by to hand the Fore-ſail; but making foul Weather, we look'd the Guns were all faſt, and handed the Miſſen.
  1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], “A Great Storm Described, the Long-Boat Sent to Fetch Water, the Author Goes with It to Discover the Country. […]”, in Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. […] [Gulliver’s Travels], volume I, London: […] Benj[amin] Motte, […], part II (A Voyage to Brobdingnag), page 151