Definition of "head-sails" [head-sails]

• Nautical, sails set forward of the foremast.

The Century Dictionary (Public Domain)

• "Mr. Van Weyden, stand by to pass the head-sails over."
• "The wind was now dead astern, muttering and puffing stronger and stronger, and my head-sails were pounding lustily."
• "At the end of a swift half-mile she rounded to, with head-sails trimming down and with a great flapping of main and mizzen, and dropped anchor in fifty feet of water so clear that every huge fluted clamshell was visible on the coral floor."