fleet

Definition from Wiktionary, a free dictionary

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Contents 1 English 1.1 Pronunciation 1.2 Etymology 1 1.2.1 Noun 1.2.1.1 Translations 1.3 Etymology 2 1.3.1 Noun 1.3.1.1 Derived terms 1.4 Etymology 3 1.4.1 Verb 1.4.2 Adjective

[edit] English

[edit] Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA: /fliːt/, SAMPA: /fli:t/

   Audio (US)^{help, file}

  Rhymes: -iːt

[edit] Etymology 1

From Middle English flet, flete, from Old English flēot (“‘ship’”)

[edit] Noun

fleet (plural fleets)

1. A group of vessels or vehicles.
2. (nautical) A number of vessels in company, especially war vessels; also, the collective naval force of a country, etc.
3. (nautical, British Royal Navy) Any command of vessels exceeding a squadron in size, or a rear-admiral's command, composed of five sail-of-the-line, with any number of smaller vessels.

[edit] Translations

[edit] Etymology 2

From Middle English flet, flete, from Old English flēot (“‘river, estuary’”)

[edit] Noun

fleet (plural fleets)

1. (nautical, obsolete) A flood; a creek or inlet, a bay or estuary, a river subject to the tide.
2. (nautical) A location, as on a navigable river, where barges are secured.

[edit] Derived terms

• Fleet
• Fleet Street

[edit] Etymology 3

From Middle English fleten (“‘float’”), from Old English flēotan (“‘float’”)

[edit] Verb

to fleet (third-person singular simple present fleets, present participle fleeting, simple past and past participle fleeted)

1. (obsolete) To float.

   [Antony] "Our sever'd navy too,
   Have knit again, and fleet, threat'ning most sea-like." -- Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra

2. To pass over rapidly; to skim the surface of

   a ship that fleets the gulf

3. To hasten over; to cause to pass away lightly, or in mirth and joy

   And so through this dark world they fleet / Divided, till in death they meet; -- Percy Shelley, Rosalind and Helen.

4. (nautical) To move up a rope, so as to haul to more advante; esp. to draw apart the blocks of a tackle.
5. (nautical, obsolete) To shift the position of dead-eyes when the shrouds are become too long.
6. To cause to slip down the barrel of a capstan or windlass, as a rope or chain.
7. To take the cream from; to skim.

[edit] Adjective

fleet (comparative fleeter or more fleet, superlative fleetest or most fleet)

1. Swift in motion; moving with velocity; light and quick in going from place to place; nimble; fast.
   • 1908: Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows

     ...it was not till the afternoon that they came out on the high-road, their first high-road; and there disaster, fleet and unforeseen, sprang out on them--disaster momentous indeed to their expedition...

2. Light; superficially thin; not penetrating deep, as soil.