English Explanatory Dictionary

fleet

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. A group of vessels or vehicles.
  2. Any group of associated items.
  3. A large, coordinated group of people.
  4. A number of vessels in company, especially war vessels; also, the collective naval force of a country, etc.
  5. 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.
  6. The individual waves in corrugated fiberboard.
noun
  1. An arm of the sea; a run of water, such as an inlet or a creek.
  2. 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.
adj
  1. Swift in motion; light and quick in going from place to place.
  2. Light; superficially thin; not penetrating deep, as soil.
noun
  1. Obsolete form of flet (“house, floor, large room”).
name
  1. A river (the River Fleet) in London, England, now buried underground, that flowed under the Eastern end of the present Fleet Street.
  2. A former prison (the Fleet Prison) in London, which originally stood near the stream.
  3. A river, the Water of Fleet, in Dumfries and Galloway council area, Scotland.
  4. A river in Highland council area, Scotland, which flows into Loch Fleet.
  5. A town and civil parish with a town council in Hart district, Hampshire, England (OS grid ref SU8054).
  6. A village and civil parish in South Holland district, Lincolnshire, England (OS grid ref TF3823).
  7. A hamlet in Alberta, Canada.
  8. A surname.

Pronunciation

/ˈfliːt/ [ˈflɪi̯t] En-us-fleet.ogg /fliːt/

Word forms

fleet fleets fleete fleeting fleeted fleeter more fleet fleetest most fleet

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”).

Synonyms

fleet nimble fast

Related words

weaponry List of collective nouns on Wikipedia.Wikipedia Appendix:Glossary of collective nouns by collective term

Derived words

admiral of the fleet airfleet battle fleet carfleet dark fleet fleet admiral fleet captain fleet carrier fleetful fleet in being fleet landing fleet leader fleetmate fleetname fleet race fleet racing fleetside fleet up fleetwide flog someone round the fleet ghost fleet interfleet merchant fleet mosquito fleet nonfleet shadow fleet starfleet subfleet Cargo Fleet Fleet Fleet Street Northfleet fleetfoot fleetfooted fleetly fleetness fleet of foot Fleet marriage Fleet Marston Gatehouse of Fleet Loch Fleet
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