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Fleet   /flit/   Listen
noun
Fleet  n.  A number of vessels in company, especially war vessels; also, the collective naval force of a country, etc.
Fleet captain, the senior aid of the admiral of a fleet, when a captain.


Fleet  n.  
1.
A flood; a creek or inlet; a bay or estuary; a river; obsolete, except as a place name, as Fleet Street in London. "Together wove we nets to entrap the fish In floods and sedgy fleets."
2.
A former prison in London, which originally stood near a stream, the Fleet (now filled up).
Fleet parson, a clergyman of low character, in, or in the vicinity of, the Fleet prison, who was ready to unite persons in marriage (called Fleet marriage) at any hour, without public notice, witnesses, or consent of parents.


adjective
Fleet  adj.  (compar. fleeter; superl. fleetest)  
1.
Swift in motion; moving with velocity; light and quick in going from place to place; nimble. "In mail their horses clad, yet fleet and strong."
2.
Light; superficially thin; not penetrating deep, as soil. (Prov. Eng.)


verb
Fleet  v. t.  
1.
To pass over rapidly; to skin the surface of; as, a ship that fleets the gulf.
2.
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."
3.
(Naut.)
(a)
To draw apart the blocks of; said of a tackle.
(b)
To cause to slip down the barrel of a capstan or windlass, as a rope or chain.
4.
(Naut.) To move or change in position; used only in special phrases; as, of fleet aft the crew. "We got the long "stick"... down and "fleeted" aft, where it was secured."


Fleet  v. t.  To take the cream from; to skim. (Prov. Eng.)


fleet  v. i.  (past & past part. fleeted; pres. part. fleeting)  
1.
To sail; to float. (Obs.) "And in frail wood on Adrian Gulf doth fleet."
2.
To fly swiftly; to pass over quickly; to hasten; to flit as a light substance. "All the unaccomplished works of Nature's hand,... Dissolved on earth, fleet hither."
3.
(Naut.) To slip on the whelps or the barrel of a capstan or windlass; said of a cable or hawser.
4.
(Naut.) To move or change in position; said of persons; as, the crew fleeted aft.





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Fleet" Quotes from Famous Books



... you cannot on the ocean Sail among the swiftest fleet, Rocking on the highest billows, Laughing at the storms you meet, You can stand among the sailors Anchored yet within the bay; You can lend a hand to help them As they launch their ...
— The Story of the Hymns and Tunes • Theron Brown and Hezekiah Butterworth
... women unlock the jewel-caskets which are their souls; happy maidens are sisterly with him; strong men grapple him to their hearts and call him friend. He that was vagabond has now innumerable homes, and of the faces that fleet by him out of doors there are always some which ...
— Apologia Diffidentis • W. Compton Leith
... of a tiny country does not begrudge the heir to a World-Power his fleet, his army, nor his treasures; but he refuses to yield one treasure to him except at the price of his heart's blood—and that treasure is the hand of Princess Wilhelmine, ...
— The German Classics of The Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Vol. VII. • Various
... the shore in all directions was dotted with them, as they ran, leaped and barked in the snow. The decks were washed down with hose, and the work of unloading began. First the sledges came down from the bridge deck, where they had been built during the upward voyage, a fine fleet of twenty-three. ...
— The North Pole - Its Discovery in 1909 under the auspices of the Peary Arctic Club • Robert E. Peary
... gathered form and substance. The pinnacles of the Seraglio shot up from the midst of cypress groves; fantastic kiosks lined the shore; the minarets of St. Sophia and Sultan Achmed rose more clearly against the sky; and a fleet of steamers and men-of-war, gay with flags, marked the entrance of the Golden Horn. We passed the little bay where St. Chrysostom was buried, the point of Chalcedon, and now, looking up the renowned Bosphorus, saw the Maiden's Tower, opposite Scutari. An enormous ...
— The Lands of the Saracen - Pictures of Palestine, Asia Minor, Sicily, and Spain • Bayard Taylor


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