Emily Dickinson Lexicon

BRAIL, n. [Fr. brayer, a brail, or truss, a contracted word.]

1. A piece of leather to bind up a hawk's wing. – Bailey.
2. In navigation, brails are ropes passing through pulleys, on the mizzen mast and yard, and fastened to the aftmost leech of the sail in different places, to truss it up close. Also, all ropes employed to haul up the bottoms, lower corners and skirts of the other great sails, for the more ready furling of them. – Mar. Dict.