fleet

Wikipedia

English

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA: /fliːt/, X-SAMPA: /fli:t/

  Audio (US)

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  Rhymes: -iːt

Etymology 1

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

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.

Translations

a group of vessels

• Armenian: նավատորմ (hy) (navatorm)
• Bulgarian: флота (bg) (flota) f
• Czech: flota (cs) f, loďstvo (cs) n
• Danish: flåde (da) c
• Dutch: vloot (nl) m and f
• Finnish: laivasto (fi)
• French: flotte (fr) f
• German: Flotte (de) f
• Greek: στόλος (el) (stólos) m
• Hungarian: flotta (hu)
• Italian: flotta (it)
• Jèrriais: fliotte f

• Latin: classis (la) f
• Maori: kahupapa (mi), kaupapa (mi)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: flåte (nb) m

  Nynorsk: flote (nn) m, flåte (nn) m

• Polish: flota (pl) f
• Portuguese: frota (pt) f
• Russian: флотилия (ru) (flotílija) f
• Scottish Gaelic: cabhlach (gd) m
• Spanish: flota (es) f
• Swedish: flotta (sv) c

Etymology 2

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

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.

Derived terms

• Fleet
• fleet in being
• Fleet Street

Etymology 3

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

Verb

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 advantage; especially 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.

Translations

To pass over rapidly

• Bulgarian: минавам бързо (bg) (minavam bǎrzo)

Adjective

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

1. (literary) 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. (uncommon) Light; superficially thin; not penetrating deep, as soil.