Illustration of yawl
- yawl 2
1
: a ship's small boat : jolly boat
2
: a fore-and-aft rigged sailboat carrying a mainsail and one or more jibs with a mizzenmast far aft
Examples of yawl in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
The ship's captain ordered the crew to the yawl boat.
—
Caitlin Looby,
jsonline.com,
22 Sep. 2025
Captain William Griffin and his crew escaped, hopping on the ship’s yawl boat, in time to see the ship and its iron ore cargo vanish underwater.
—
Brian Anthony Hernandez,
PEOPLE,
21 Sep. 2025
Water poured in too fast for the crew to pump it out, and the ship's captain ordered the eight-man crew onto the yawl boat.
—
Julia Gomez,
USA Today,
17 Sep. 2025
Prior to the incident, Wilson had been aboard a 52-foot yawl named the Emerald with friends Oster and Colleen McGovern.
—
Nicole Briese,
Peoplemag,
24 May 2024
The crew had no time to gather their possessions or weather gear before boarding their small yawl boat, and the ship sank so quickly that a Newfoundland that served as her mascot was unable to escape.
—
Christopher Clough,
USA TODAY,
5 Sep. 2023
Tamara Thomsen/Zach Whitrock / AP Captain John Higgins and his crew of eight survived and reached Algoma, about 120 miles north of Milwaukee, after rowing for eight hours in the ship's yawl boat.
—
CBS News,
2 Sep. 2023
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Caitlin Looby,
jsonline.com,
22 Sep. 2025
Captain William Griffin and his crew escaped, hopping on the ship’s yawl boat, in time to see the ship and its iron ore cargo vanish underwater.
—
Brian Anthony Hernandez,
PEOPLE,
21 Sep. 2025
Water poured in too fast for the crew to pump it out, and the ship's captain ordered the eight-man crew onto the yawl boat.
—
Julia Gomez,
USA Today,
17 Sep. 2025
Prior to the incident, Wilson had been aboard a 52-foot yawl named the Emerald with friends Oster and Colleen McGovern.
—
Nicole Briese,
Peoplemag,
24 May 2024
The crew had no time to gather their possessions or weather gear before boarding their small yawl boat, and the ship sank so quickly that a Newfoundland that served as her mascot was unable to escape.
—
Christopher Clough,
USA TODAY,
5 Sep. 2023
Tamara Thomsen/Zach Whitrock / AP Captain John Higgins and his crew of eight survived and reached Algoma, about 120 miles north of Milwaukee, after rowing for eight hours in the ship's yawl boat.
—
CBS News,
2 Sep. 2023
Cite this Entry
“Yawl.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/yawl. Accessed 5 Jul. 2026.
Copy CitationKids Definition
yawl
noun
: a sailboat having two masts with the shorter one behind the rudder
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