gather way

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gather way (third-person singular simple present gathers way, present participle gathering way, simple past and past participle gathered way)

1. (nautical, idiomatic, dated) To begin to move
2. (nautical, idiomatic, dated) to move with increasing speed
   • 1844, James Fenimore Cooper, Afloat and Ashore:

     The boat beginning to gather way, too, I threw Sennit the end of a lower-studding-sail halyards, that were brought aft for the purpose, ordered his bowman to let go his hold of the tackle, and dropped the boat a safe towing distance astern

   • 1889, Harry Collingwood, The Missing Merchantman:

     The ship tacked with the same admirable precision as before, and on gathering way was found to be looking well up for the entrance to the narrow channel.

3. (nautical, idiomatic, dated) to get headway by sail or steam so as to answer the helm.

• “gather”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.