Definition of "fore-topsail" [fore•-top•sail]

• The topsail on a foremast. See sail. (noun)

Gnu Collaboartive International Dictionary of English: licensed under The Code Project Open License (CPOL)

• "The foresail and fore-topsail, emptied of the wind by the manoeuvre, and with no one to bring in the sheet in time, were thundering into ribbons, the heavy boom threshing and splintering from rail to rail."
• "The fore-topsail would give her the necessary way, but spreading it before she was before the wind would lay her over on her beam ends."
• "He ran his eyes aloft to make sure that the preparations for goose-einging the fore-topsail were complete, and his gaze lingered for a while longer as he observed the motion of the spars relative to the wild sky."