Idiom
bare poles
Meaning
The condition of a sailing boat when all of its sails have been taken in.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Examples
“The storm hit, so the crew went to bare poles.”
“With the wind gusting at fifty knots, the captain ordered the crew to go to bare poles to avoid capsizing.”
“As the tempest raged and the mainsail threatened to split, the seasoned skipper commanded the vessel to bare poles, trusting only the engine to carry them through the maelstrom.”
Examples
simple
“The storm hit, so the crew went to bare poles.”
contextual
“With the wind gusting at fifty knots, the captain ordered the crew to go to bare poles to avoid capsizing.”
complex
“As the tempest raged and the mainsail threatened to split, the seasoned skipper commanded the vessel to bare poles, trusting only the engine to carry them through the maelstrom.”
Key words
Related idioms
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