fleet
/ˈfliːt/ noun, verb, adjective, proper noun
Forms fleets fleeting fleeted fleeter fleetest fleete
- noun (collective) A group of vessels or vehicles, generally operating in a unified way or traveling together. “A fleet of warships is heading this way.”
- noun The vehicles commercially owned by a person, company or agency. “She owns a fleet of private medical transport vans.”
- noun (nautical, military) A number of vessels in company, especially war vessels; the vessels commanded by a single officer; also, the collective naval force of a country, etc. “We must invest in our fleet for our national security.”
- noun (nautical, military, 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.
- noun (collective) A large, coordinated group of people.
- noun Any group of associated items.
- noun (Scotland) A street gang.
- noun The individual waves in corrugated fiberboard.
- noun (dialectal, obsolete outside of place names) An arm of the sea; a run of water, such as an inlet or a creek.
- noun (nautical) A location, as on a navigable river, where barges are secured.
- verb (obsolete, intransitive) To float.
- verb (ambitransitive) To pass over rapidly; to skim the surface of.
- verb (ambitransitive) To hasten over; to cause to pass away lightly, or in mirth and joy.
- verb (intransitive) To flee, to escape, to speed away.
- verb (intransitive) To evanesce, disappear, die out.
- verb (nautical) To move up a rope, so as to haul to more advantage; especially to draw apart the blocks of a tackle.
- verb (nautical, intransitive, of people) To move or change in position.
- verb (nautical, obsolete) To shift the position of dead-eyes when the shrouds are become too long.
- adjective (literary) Swift in motion; light and quick in going from place to place.
- adjective (uncommon) Light; superficially thin; not penetrating deep, as soil.
Synonyms
carfleet company cars nimble fast flit flutter dart evanesce fade blow over pass off pass swift
Etymology
From Middle English flete, flet (“fleet”), from Old English flēot (“ship”), likely related to Proto-West Germanic *flotōn, from Proto-Germanic *flutōną (“to float”).
From Middle English flete (“bay, gulf”), from Old English flēot (“a bay, gulf, an arm of the sea, estuary, the mouth of a river”), from Proto-West Germanic *fleut, from Proto-Germanic *fleutą.
Cognate with Dutch vliet (“stream, river, creek, inlet”), German Fleet (“watercourse, canal”).
From Middle English fleten (“float”), from Old English flēotan (“float”), from Proto-West Germanic *fleutan, from Proto-Germanic *fleutaną.
See flet.
Webster’s 1913
- verb To sail; to float. [Obs.]
- verb To fly swiftly; to pass over quickly; to hasten; to flit as a light substance.
- verb To pass over rapidly; to skin the surface of; as, a ship that fleets the gulf. Spenser.
- verb To hasten over; to cause to pass away lighty, or in mirth and joy. Many young gentlemen flock to him, and fleet the time carelessly.
Etymology [OE. fleten, fleoten, to swim, AS. fleótan to swim, float; akin to D. vlieten to flow, OS. fliotan, OHG. fliozzan, G. fliessen, Icel. fljota to float, flow, Sw. flyta, D. flyde, L. pluere to rain, Gr. plu to swim, sail. sq. root84. Cf. Fleet, n. & a., Float, Pluvial, Flow.]
Etymology [Cf. Icel. flj quick. See Fleet, v. i.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “fleet”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details