Definition of "main-topsail" [main-topsail]

• A topsail set on the mainmast. (noun)

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

• "Thus a few minutes of the voyage were lost by backing the Elsinore's main-topsail and deadening her way while the service was read and O'Sullivan was slid overboard with the inevitable sack of coal at his feet."
• "Simultaneously, there was the shrieking of a parrel, up the main; and I knew that someone, or something, had let go the main-topsail haul-yards."
• "Suddenly her main-topsail went, yard and all, in a terrific squall; she had to bear up under bare poles, and disappeared."