bourlinguer
French, verb/buʁ.lɛ̃.ɡe/
bourlinguer is spelled B-O-U-R-L-I-N-G-U-E-R (11 letters) and appears about once in every 15 million words in written French, the 125,137th most frequent French word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Bourlinguer is a French verb meaning “to tack against the wind” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) defines it as “Faire des efforts pour avancer contre le vent et la mer, rouler bord sur bord”.
What does bourlinguer mean in English?
verb
- 1
to tack against the wind
- 2
to roam, get about
Source: English Wiktionary, French section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How French dictionaries define it
verb: 1. Faire des efforts pour avancer contre le vent et la mer, rouler bord sur bord. 2. Avancer péniblement. 3. Voyager. 4. Faire la fête, s’amuser.
The definition in the French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), in French.
Source: French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.
Forms of bourlinguer
- avoir + past participle infinitive multiword-construction
- bourlinguant gerund participle present
- ayant + past participle gerund multiword-construction participle
- bourlingué participle past
- bourlingue first-person indicative present
- bourlingues indicative present second-person
- bourlinguons first-person indicative plural
- bourlinguez indicative plural present
- bourlinguent indicative plural present
- bourlinguais first-person imperfect indicative
- bourlinguait imperfect indicative singular
- bourlinguions first-person imperfect indicative
- bourlinguiez imperfect indicative plural
- bourlinguaient imperfect indicative plural
- bourlinguai first-person historic indicative
- bourlinguas historic indicative past
- bourlingua historic indicative past
- bourlinguâmes first-person historic indicative
Source: English Wiktionary and French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
How do you pronounce bourlinguer?
- /buʁ.lɛ̃.ɡe/
- \buʁ.lɛ̃.ɡe\
- [buʁlɛ̃ɡe]
Sources: English Wiktionary, French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026); recordings from Wikimedia Commons.
How common is bourlinguer in French?
bourlinguer appears about once in every 15 million words in written French.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).