fleet

== English == === Pronunciation === (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /fliːt/ (General American) IPA(key): /flit/ Rhymes: -iːt === Etymology 1 === From Middle English flete, flet (“fleet”), from Old English flēot (“ship”), likely related to Proto-West Germanic *flotōn, from Proto-Germanic *flutōną (“to float”). ==== Noun ==== fleet (plural fleets) A group of vessels or vehicles. Any group of associated items. A large, coordinated group of people. (nautical) A number of vessels in company, especially war vessels; also, the collective naval force of a country, etc. (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. The individual waves in corrugated fiberboard. ===== Alternative forms ===== fleete (obsolete) ===== Derived terms ===== ===== Translations ===== === Etymology 2 === 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”). ==== Noun ==== fleet (plural fleets) (dialectal, obsolete outside of place names) An arm of the sea; a run of water, such as an inlet or a creek. 1628, A. Matthewes (translator), Aminta (originally by Torquato Tasso) Together wove we nets to entrap the fish In floods and sedgy fleets. (nautical) A location, as on a navigable river, where barges are secured. ===== Derived terms ===== === Etymology 3 === From Middle English fleten (“float”), from Old English flēotan (“float”), from Proto-West Germanic *fleutan, from Proto-Germanic *fleutaną. ==== Verb ==== fleet (third-person singular simple present fleets, present participle fleeting, simple past and past participle fleeted) (obsolete, intransitive) To float. (ambitransitive) To pass over rapidly; to skim the surface of. (ambitransitive) To hasten over; to cause to pass away lightly, or in mirth and joy. 1817-18, Percy Shelley, Rosalind and Helen, lines 626-627: And so through this dark world they fleet / Divided, till in death they meet. (intransitive) To flee, to escape, to speed away. (intransitive) To evanesce, disappear, die out. (nautical) To move up a rope, so as to haul to more advantage; especially to draw apart the blocks of a tackle. (nautical, intransitive, of people) To move or change in position. (nautical, obsolete) To shift the position of dead-eyes when the shrouds are become too long. To cause to slip down the barrel of a capstan or windlass, as a rope or chain. To take the cream from; to skim. ===== Translations ===== ==== Adjective ==== fleet (comparative fleeter or more fleet, superlative fleetest or most fleet) (literary) Swift in motion; light and quick in going from place to place. Synonyms: nimble, fast (uncommon) Light; superficially thin; not penetrating deep, as soil. ===== Derived terms ===== ===== Translations ===== === Etymology 4 === See flet. ==== Noun ==== fleet (plural fleets) (Yorkshire) Obsolete form of flet (“house, floor, large room”). 1686, "Lyke Wake Dirge" as printed in The Oxford Book of English Verse (1900) p. 361: Fire and fleet and candle-lighte === Anagrams === felte, lefte == Middle English == === Noun === fleet alternative form of flete (“bay”)