three-master

[ three-mas-ter, -mah-ster ]

noun

, Nautical.

1. a sailing ship with three masts.

Other Words From

• three-masted adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of three-master¹

First recorded in 1880–85

Example Sentences

The three-master has successfully passed sea trials in the Bay of Biscay and is now to embark on its maiden voyage: a transatlantic crossing to where its namesake once roved with the Americans.

From BBC

The brutal challenges of Arctic travel were well known by 1879, and the expedition’s hardy three-master — the USS Jeannette, equipped with a supplemental steam engine and a specially reinforced bow — was as prepared for heavy pack ice as any vessel of the time could be.

From Washington Post

The tour de force here, though, is “Harbor Scene on Cape Cod,” a combination of slapdash rough water, coruscating shores and a jaunty yellow-decked three-master that an unknown artist painted in the 1890s.

From New York Times

He would have learned much concerning the differences between a square-rigged three-master and a schooner like the Noank.

From Project Gutenberg

Not a great while after that and just as the day was dawning, a bulky three-master, running along in a steady, businesslike manner, appeared to be almost in danger of being run into by a much smaller craft which had been following her.

From Project Gutenberg