(n.) In a square-rigged vessel, the sail next above the lowermost sail on a mast. This sail is the one most frequently reefed or furled in working the ship. In a fore-and-aft rigged vessel, the sail set upon and above the gaff. See Cutter, Schooner, Sail, and Ship.
Example Sentences:
Topsoil
Definition:
(n.) The upper layer of soil; surface soil.
Example Sentences:
(1) Unwin directed As You Like It, which closes this weekend: he will then give away a tonne of topsoil from the set to a local school, resisting the temptation to set up in the neighbouring market place and sell it.
(2) For sometime, the use of machinery and chemical fertilizers has masked the loss of topsoil, but under recent increases in population pressures, soil conservation measures are gaining in importance.
(3) The vacant town, located within the Prohibited Zone created after the Fukushima nuclear leak in 2011 (which continues to spill toxic effluent into the Pacific Ocean), was asked to host a radioactive materials storage facility, for the bags of radioactive topsoil and debris that have been sitting in fields around the area for years.
(4) There were strong positive relationships between the number of larvae and pupae and total organic matter, indicating highest concentrations of immatures in nutrient-rich topsoil with an abundant supply of larval food.
(5) Tin mining typically requires land to be bulldozed, then hosed down and dug up, meaning that the fertile topsoil so essential for agriculture and plantations is lost, and acidic soil brought to the surface instead.
(6) Elevated PbB at each specific age was associated mainly with increased lead concentrations in the topsoil of the local residential area, employment of the father in the lead industry, parental smoking, and behaviors likely to cause ingestion of dirt.
(7) Officials promised to foot the bill for the removal of topsoil from outdoor play areas in the region where levels exceed the limit.
(8) On January 1, 1989 approximately 60% of the Chernobyl caesium was still in the top 0-2 cm of the topsoil.
(9) Down below at the bottom of the mine, workers are busy running gigantic machines to remove the topsoil and dig deep into a layer of brown coal, or lignite.
(10) Towns outside the evacuation zone have sprayed streets with water and removed topsoil from school playgrounds in an attempt to make their communities safe.
(11) They're greened over now, but the scars of its industrial past are everywhere - great chunks missing from the hillsides and places where the coal dust glitters through the topsoil still.
(12) Of 1,200 sq km of known mined areas, 800 sq km have been affected by flooding and topsoil movement, a diplomatic source told the Guardian.
(13) They reduce the wind that blows away topsoil, and they provide shade to livestock, who drop manure and urine.
(14) Less than 1% of bacterial colonies isolated from garden topsoil and greater than 80% of bacteria isolated from PCB-contaminated soils showed DNA homologies with 32P-labeled DNA probes.
(15) The influence of local variations in topography and microclimate on the observed radiocaesium levels in topsoils, lichens and vascular plants was studied in detail.
(16) It is only slightly volatile, is highly soluble in water, and is moderately persistent in topsoil, where it is strongly absorbed to organic carbon.
(17) Ignoring official assurances that the exposure limit and current radiation readings in the area posed no threat to children's health, parents and teachers in Otama and five other communities in Fukushima prefecture started removing and burying topsoil from school playgrounds.
(18) As people build on these hillsides they erode the topsoil, and the rain washes the sand and rubbish from the settlements into the nature reserve on the other side of the border.
(19) Experts say that while health risks can be lowered by measures including the removal of layers of topsoil, vulnerable groups such as pregnant women and children should avoid even minimal exposure.
(20) The steps produced immediate results: radiation readings in topsoil outside Ando's school dropped from 1.32 microsieverts to 0.25 microsieverts an hour, compared with a pre-disaster reading of 0.04 microsieverts.