reef
verb/riːf/
/riːf/
(specialist)Verb Forms
| present simple I / you / we / they reef | /riːf/ /riːf/ |
| he / she / it reefs | /riːfs/ /riːfs/ |
| past simple reefed | /riːft/ /riːft/ |
| past participle reefed | /riːft/ /riːft/ |
| -ing form reefing | /ˈriːfɪŋ/ /ˈriːfɪŋ/ |
- reef something to make a sail smaller by tying or rolling up part of it
- They set sail with the sails reefed against the strong winds.
Oxford Collocations DictionaryReef is used with these nouns as the object:- sail
Word Originverb Middle English: from Middle Dutch reef, rif, from Old Norse rif, literally ‘rib’, used in the same sense.
Check pronunciation:
reef