/ · 1894 Brewer’s · S · Strike Sail
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To acknowledge oneself beaten; to eat umble pie. A mari-time expression. When a ship in fight or on meeting another ship, lets down her topsails at least half-mast high, she is said to strike, meaning that she submits or pays respect to the other.
“Now Margaret
Must strike her sail, and learn a while to serve
When kings command.”
Shakespeare: 3 Henry VI., iii. 3.
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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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