fleet
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /fliːt/
ipa: /flit/
rhymes: -iːt
Forms: form: fleets
form: fleete
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”).
Senses: examples: text: He did discourse to us of the Dutch fleete being abroad, eighty-five of them still, and are now at the Texell, he believes, in expectation of our Eastland ships coming home with masts and hempe, and our loaden Hambrough ships going to Hambrough.
ref: 1665 October 11 (date written; Gregorian calendar), Samuel Pepys, Mynors Bright, transcriber, “October 1st, 1665 (Lord’s Day)”, in Henry B[enjamin] Wheatley, editor, The Diary of Samuel Pepys […], volume V, London: George Bell & Sons […]; Cambridge: Deighton Bell & Co., published 1895, →OCLC, page 100:
text: It was planning to use an '807' for one day only as part of a shakedown test, ahead of the fleet's formal entry to service which is currently planned for November.
ref: 2024 October 30, “Network News: Avanti prepares for Class 807s to enter traffic”, in RAIL, number 1021, page 12:
glosses: A group of vessels or vehicles.
examples: text: This is especially true in distributed printing environments, where a fleet of printers is shared by users on a network.
ref: 2004, Jim Hoskins, Building an on Demand Computing Environment with IBM:
glosses: Any group of associated items.
examples: text: And after the past few days, in which a fleet of Republicans and the president himself have utilized Jews as human shields for racist rhetoric, the Jews are tired, tired, tired of being used as defenses against naked racism, tired of being used to justify conditions at detention camps. Just plain tired.
ref: 2019 July 17, Talia Lavin, “When Non-Jews Wield Anti-Semitism as Political Shield”, in GQ:
glosses: A large, coordinated group of people.
examples: text: Despite the line proving to be a useful strategic route for men and supplies to the British naval fleets stationed at Scapa Flow in both world wars, the Duke's legacy looked to have passed into history when it was listed for closure in the infamous Beeching report.
ref: 2021 October 20, Paul Stephen, “Leisure and pleasure on the Far North Line”, in RAIL, number 942, page 48:
topics: nautical
transport
glosses: A number of vessels in company, especially war vessels; also, the collective naval force of a country, etc.
topics: nautical
transport
glosses: 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.
glosses: The individual waves in corrugated fiberboard.
Synonyms: word: fleet
Hypernyms: word: group
Hyponyms: word: armada
word: convoy
word: flotilla
word: formation
word: motorcade
word: squadron
Meronyms: word: aircraft
word: automobile
word: spacecraft
word: vehicle
word: vessel
word: watercraft
Derived terms: 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
interfleet
merchant fleet
mosquito fleet
nonfleet
shadow fleet
starfleet
subfleet
Related terms: word: weaponry
word: List of collective nouns on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
word: Appendix:Glossary of collective nouns by collective term