E. Cobham Brewer 1810–1897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898.
Sky-rakers,
strictly speaking, is a sail above the fore-royal, the main-royal, or the mizzen-royal, more frequently called “sky-scrapers.” In general parlance any top-sail is so called.
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“Dashed by the strange wind’s sport, we were sunk deep in the green sea’s trough; and before we could utter an ejaculatory prayer, were upheaved upon the crown of some fantastic surge, peering our sky-rakers into the azure vault of heaven.”—C. Thomson: Autobiography, p. 120.
