Definition of "fore-and-after" [fore-and-after]

• A sailing ship, such as a schooner, with a fore-and-aft rig. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Well, you must understand that this room was low, scarcely higher than the cabin of a fore-and-after, with no skylights to it, or wind-sail, or port-hole that would open."
• "Poor Sarah took off her frock and washed it before me, without a sign of distress or embarrassment; and then we went off together and had a bit of a dance, -- a rough-and-tumble fore-and-after, -- at the nearest booth."
• "And so, although the light-winged craft that was following the ship sailed three feet to her two; yet she had such a long start, and the breeze was so fair and dead aft -- which was all in favour of a square-rigged vessel and against a fore-and-after, that sails best with the wind abeam -- that the felucca was still some five miles off when day broke and the chief mate first discovered her."