fleet
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /fliːt/
ipa: /flit/
rhymes: -iːt
Forms: form: fleets
form: fleeting
form: fleeted
form: fleeted
Etymology: From Middle English fleten (“float”), from Old English flēotan (“float”), from Proto-West Germanic *fleutan, from Proto-Germanic *fleutaną.
Senses: examples: text: Legions of Spirits fleeting in the aire,
Direct our Bullets and our weapons pointes […]
ref: c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire; London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act III, scene iii:
text: Antony: Our force by land / Hath nobly held; our sever'd navy too, / Have knit again, and fleet, threat'ning most sea-like.
ref: c. 1606–1607 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene xi]:
glosses: To float.
examples: text: Long were to tell the troublous stormes, that tosse
The private state, and make the life unsweet
Who swelling sayles in Caspian sea doth crosse,
And in frayle wood on Adrian gulf doth fleet
ref: 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
glosses: To pass over rapidly; to skim the surface of.
examples: text: They say he is already in the Forest of Arden, and a many merry men with him; and there they live like the old Robin Hood of England. They say many young gentlemen flock to him every day and fleet the time carelessly, as they did in the golden world.
ref: c. 1598–1600 (date written), William Shakespeare, “As You Like It”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i]:
text: And so through this dark world they fleet / Divided, till in death they meet.
ref: 1817-18, Percy Shelley, Rosalind and Helen, lines 626-627
glosses: To hasten over; to cause to pass away lightly, or in mirth and joy.
examples: text: Gratiano:O, be thou damn'd, inexecrable dog!
And for thy life let justice be accused.
Thou almost makest me waver in my faith,
To hold opinion with Pythagoras,
That souls of animals infuse themselves
Into the trunks of men: thy currish spirit
Govern'd a wolf, who, hang'd for human slaughter,
Even from the gallows did his fell soul fleet,
And, whilst thou lay'st in thy unhallow'd dam,
Infused itself in thee; for thy desires
Are wolfish, bloody, starved, and ravenous.
ref: c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i]:
text: It began to be chill; the tide was rapidly fleeting seaward, the schooner settling more and more on her beam-ends.
ref: 1881–1882, Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island, London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 14 November 1883, →OCLC:
glosses: To flee, to escape, to speed away.
examples: text: Portia:How all other passions fleet to air,
As doubtful thoughts, and rash-embraced despair,
And shuddering fear, and green-eyed jealousy!
O love, be moderate; allay thy ecstasy;
In measure rain thy joy; scant this excess!
I feel too much thy blessing; make it less,
For fear I surfeit!
ref: c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii]:
glosses: To evanesce, disappear, die out.
examples: text: To fleet tackle when pennant block is used, the keeper, with a strap and heaver, racks both parts of hawser together near pennant block, and the tackle is then overhauled and hooked by the men assigned to those duties.
ref: 1899, Regulations for the Government of the Life-Saving Service of the United States:
topics: nautical
transport
glosses: To move up a rope, so as to haul to more advantage; especially to draw apart the blocks of a tackle.
examples: text: We got the long "stick" [...] down and "fleeted" aft, where it was secured.
ref: 1898, Frank T. Bullen, The Cruise of the "Cachalot":
topics: nautical
transport
glosses: To move or change in position.
raw_tags: of people
topics: nautical
transport
glosses: To shift the position of dead-eyes when the shrouds are become too long.
glosses: To cause to slip down the barrel of a capstan or windlass, as a rope or chain.
glosses: To take the cream from; to skim.