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fleet

Pronunciation: /ˈfliːt/

The English word “fleet” has 20 meanings listed here.

noun

  1. A group of vessels or vehicles, generally operating in a unified way or traveling together.
  2. The vehicles commercially owned by a person, company or agency.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. A large, coordinated group of people.
  6. Any group of associated items.
  7. A street gang.
  8. The individual waves in corrugated fiberboard.
  9. An arm of the sea; a run of water, such as an inlet or a creek.
  10. A location, as on a navigable river, where barges are secured.

verb

  1. To float.
  2. To pass over rapidly; to skim the surface of.
  3. To hasten over; to cause to pass away lightly, or in mirth and joy.
  4. To flee, to escape, to speed away.
  5. To evanesce, disappear, die out.
  6. To move up a rope, so as to haul to more advantage; especially to draw apart the blocks of a tackle.
  7. To move or change in position.
  8. To shift the position of dead-eyes when the shrouds are become too long.
  9. To cause to slip down the barrel of a capstan or windlass, as a rope or chain.
  10. To take the cream from; to skim.

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”).

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.