Fleet

Pronunciation

• UK IPA: /fliːt/
• Rhymes: -iːt

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

Full definition of fleet

Noun

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.

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

Noun

1. (obsolete) A flood; a creek or inlet, a bay or estuary, a river subject to the tide. cognate to Low German fleet
• MatthewesTogether wove we nets to entrap the fish
  In floods and sedgy fleets.
2. (nautical) A location, as on a navigable river, where barges are secured.

Derived terms

• Fleet
• fleet in being
• Fleet Street

From Middle English fleten ("float"), from Old English flēotan ("float")

Verb

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 ofa ship that fleets the gulf
3. To hasten over; to cause to pass away lightly, or in mirth and joy
• ShakespeareMany young gentlemen flock to him, and fleet the time carelessly.
4. And so through this dark world they fleet
   Divided, till in death they meet; -- Percy Shelley, Rosalind and Helen.
5. (nautical) To move up a rope, so as to haul to more advantage; especially to draw apart the blocks of a tackle.
6. (nautical, obsolete) To shift the position of dead-eyes when the shrouds are become too long.
7. To cause to slip down the barrel of a capstan or windlass, as a rope or chain.
8. To take the cream from; to skim.

Adjective

1. (literary) Swift in motion; moving with velocity; light and quick in going from place to place; nimble; fast.
• MiltonIn mail their horses clad, yet fleet and strong.
• 1908: Kenneth Grahame, ... 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.