Definition

1. Adjective:
   • Rigged with square sails as the principal ones: Describes a sailing ship whose primary sails are square sails. These sails are attached to horizontal yards that are mounted perpendicular (at a right angle) to the ship's keel and mast.

Usage

• The term is used specifically in nautical contexts to classify the rigging (the arrangement of masts and sails) of a ship. It contrasts with "fore-and-aft rigged" vessels.
• It typically functions as an attributive adjective, placed before the noun it modifies (e.g., a square-rigged ship).

Examples

• Adjective:
  • The tall ship was a magnificent square-rigged vessel with three masts.
  • Sailing a square-rigged ship requires a large crew to handle the yards and sails.
  • The era of the great square-rigged clippers was in the 19th century.

Advanced Usage

• "to be square-rigged": Describes the permanent or characteristic rig of a ship.
  • The replica of HMS Victory is square-rigged on all three of her masts.
• The term can be used in historical or technical descriptions of maritime history, shipbuilding, and sailing.

Variants and Related Words

• Square-rigger (noun): A ship that is square-rigged.
  • The museum owns a restored square-rigger from the 1800s.
• Square sail (noun): The type of sail used on a square-rigged vessel. It is roughly square or rectangular and hung from a yard.
• Fore-and-aft rigged (adjective): The contrasting rig type, where sails (like gaff or Bermuda sails) are set along the line of the keel rather than across it.

Synonyms

• Ship-rigged (when referring to a full-rigged ship, which is a type of square-rigged vessel with specific sail arrangements).
• There is no perfect single-word synonym; "square-rigged" is a precise technical term.

Related Phrases/Compounds

• Full-rigged ship: A specific type of square-rigged sailing ship with three or more masts, all square-rigged.
• Barque or Bark: A type of sailing vessel with three or more masts, where the aft mast(s) are fore-and-aft rigged, but the forward masts are square-rigged.

Adjective

1. rigged with square sails as the principal ones