Naut. Also tafrail. [A 19th-c. alteration of TAFFEREL, due to false etymology, the termination -rel being taken as RAIL.] The aftermost portion of the poop-rail of a ship.
1814. Chron., in Ann. Reg., 176/2. We crossed his stern, our jib-boom passing over his tafrail.
1823. Scoresby, Jrnl. Whale Fish., 39. I stood on the taffrail as the ship was turned before the wind.
1840. R. H. Dana, Bef. Mast, xxxiii. 126. With her head for the equator, and Cape Horn over her taffrail, she went gloriously on.
1899. Bullen, Log Sea-waif, 187. She dipped her stern right under, taking a sea in over the taffrail that filled the decks fore and aft.
