Definition of "luff" []

• The act of sailing closer into the wind. (noun)
• The forward side of a fore-and-aft sail. (noun)
• Archaic The fullest part of the bow of a ship. (noun)
• To steer a sailing vessel closer into the wind, especially with the sails flapping. (verb-intransitive)
• To flap while losing wind. Used of a sail. (verb-intransitive)

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.

• "ZippyDSMlee: Vlag: DOn; t mind DS his dicky prickleness is what makes him so hot: X * luff luff*"
• "Captain Vernon appeared on deck, and, addressing the second "luff," said."
• "Old junk, however, can yet be "worked up," as the sea expression goes, into other uses, and that perhaps was what Mr. Oldjunk meant; his early adventures as a young "luff" were, for economical reasons, worked up into their present literary shape, with the addition of a certain amount of extraneous matter -- love-making, and the like."