Definition of "brail" []

• One of several small ropes attached to the leech of a sail for drawing the sail in or up. (noun)
• A small net for drawing fish from a trap or a larger net into a boat. (noun)
• To gather in (a sail) with brails. (verb-transitive)
• To haul in (fish) with a brail. (verb-transitive)

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.

• "Elsewhere (and prevalently) confusing or misleading information is given (e.g., [at brail] "Earlier spelled brale, it came from Old French, braile, belt."): Is the inference to be that the modern English word brail was borrowed from Old French in the fifteenth century?"
• "Why can't kids modeling clothes in adverts have Down's syndrome, newscasters be wheelchair users, and continuity voices be reading brail?"
• "Audio book, large print, small print, Japanese text and brail."