mizzen sailn.

1419–22 Naval Acct. in B. Sandahl Middle Eng. Sea Terms (1958) II. 79 (MED) j Mesansail.

1485 in M. Oppenheim Naval Accts. & Inventories Henry VII (1896) 41 Meson sailes..ij.

1591 R. Percyvall Bibliotheca Hispanica Dict. at Messana vela The mizine saile.

1611 R. Cotgrave Dict. French & Eng. Tongues Catepleure,..a smacke, or mizzen sayle.

1627 J. Smith Sea Gram. ix. 41 Seeing the storme decreaseth, let vs trie if she will endure the Hullocke of a Saile, which sometimes is a peece of the mizen saile or some other little saile, part opned to keepe her head to the sea.

1694 tr. F. Martens Voy. Spitzbergen 2 in Narbrough's Acct. Several Late Voy. We..drove with our Missen-sail towards South-east.

1716 J. Edens in Philos. Trans. 1714–16 (Royal Soc.) 29 318 Their Sails [sc. of a Caravel] are all Mizen Sails, that is, Triangular.

1751 W. Beawes Lex Mercatoria Rediviva 268 Lying too, with her Gib Sail hauled to windward, and her Mizzen Sail set.

1839 J. H. Ingraham Captain Kyd II. i. viii. 37 He came along with the wind on her starboard quarter,..under three huge lugger sails,..a jib, and triangular mizzen sail not unlike a ship's spanker.

1896 New Eng. Mag. May 284 He had slipped into the main rigging, where, hidden by the mizzen sails, he had climbed to his lofty perch unobserved.

1977 G. V. Higgins Dreamland ix. 96 With the spreader lights on the main~mast on, I took down the mizzen sail.

2000 Ottawa Citizen (Nexis) 24 June l5 We had been sailing along with full sail, our large jib, mainsail and mizzen sail.