To cap to a superior; hence to strike sail, to lower (French, avaler, to take off.)
“My wealthy Andrew docked in sand,
Vailing her high-top lower than her ribs.”
Shakespeare: Merchant of Venice, i. 1
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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.
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