Definition of "yawl"

yawl¹

/jɔːl/

noun
plural yawls
1. A small ship's boat, usually rowed by four or six oars.
2. A fore-and-aft rigged sailing vessel with two masts, main and mizzen, the mizzen stepped abaft the rudder post.
  Quotations
  The “Nellie,” a cruising yawl, swung to her anchor without a flutter of the sails, and was at rest.
  1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], part I, page 193

yawl²

/jɔːl/

verb
third-person singular simple present yawls, present participle yawling, simple past and past participle yawled
1. To cry out; to howl.