A stay on a sailing ship leading downwards and aft from the top or upper part of a mast.
（帆船的）后支索，后拉索
Example sentencesExamples
I was looking closely at the rigging last week and noticed the backstay was very loose (not under sail, just dockside).
My backstay was attached to a U-bolt which used a piece of oak for the backing plate.
The only real noise was the sheets screeching through the blocks and the deafening creak when one running backstay was let off and the other was ground on hard.
The 7.5 m long anchor span consists of a 10 m wide, 9 m deep posttensioned central box girder that houses anchorages for the backstays.
The rig is a simple deck-stepped mast-head sloop with single upper shrouds and spreaders, double lower shrouds and split backstay.
Definition of backstay in US English:
backstay
nounˈbæksteɪˈbakstā
A stay on a sailing ship leading downward and aft from the top or upper part of a mast.
（帆船的）后支索，后拉索
Example sentencesExamples
The rig is a simple deck-stepped mast-head sloop with single upper shrouds and spreaders, double lower shrouds and split backstay.
The 7.5 m long anchor span consists of a 10 m wide, 9 m deep posttensioned central box girder that houses anchorages for the backstays.
I was looking closely at the rigging last week and noticed the backstay was very loose (not under sail, just dockside).
My backstay was attached to a U-bolt which used a piece of oak for the backing plate.
The only real noise was the sheets screeching through the blocks and the deafening creak when one running backstay was let off and the other was ground on hard.