Pronunciations (3)
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/ˈfliːt/
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[ˈflɪi̯t]
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fliːt
Noun
A group of vessels or vehicles, generally operating in a unified way or traveling together.
Usage- collective
- Examples
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A fleet of warships is heading this way.
merchant fleet, shadow fleet
More examples (2)
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.
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.
A group of vessels or vehicles, generally operating in a unified way or traveling together. The vehicles commercially owned by a person, company or agency.
Usage- collective
- Synonyms
- Examples
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She owns a fleet of private medical transport vans.
fleet car, fleet truck, fleet vehicle
A group of vessels or vehicles, generally operating in a unified way or traveling together. A number of vessels in company, especially war vessels; the vessels commanded by a single officer; also, the collective naval force of a country, etc.
Usage- collective
- Examples
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We must invest in our fleet for our national security.
More examples (1)
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.
A group of vessels or vehicles, generally operating in a unified way or traveling together. 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.
Usage- British-Royal-Navy
- collective
A large, coordinated group of people.
Usage- collective
- Examples
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More examples (1)
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.
Any group of associated items.
- Examples
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This is especially true in distributed printing environments, where a fleet of printers is shared by users on a network.
Any group of associated items. A street gang.
Usage- Scotland
The individual waves in corrugated fiberboard.
Noun
An arm of the sea; a run of water, such as an inlet or a creek.
Usage- dialectal
- Examples
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a certain Flete [...] through which little Boats used to come to the aforesaid Town
Together wove we nets to entrap the fish In floods and sedgy fleets.
A location, as on a navigable river, where barges are secured.
Verb
To float.
Usage- Intransitive
- Obsolete
- Examples
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Legions of Spirits fleeting in the aire, Direct our Bullets and our weapons pointes […]
Antony: Our force by land / Hath nobly held; our sever'd navy too, / Have knit again, and fleet, threat'ning most sea-like.
To pass over rapidly; to skim the surface of.
Usage- Transitive or intransitive
- Examples
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More examples (1)
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
To hasten over; to cause to pass away lightly, or in mirth and joy.
Usage- Transitive or intransitive
- Examples
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More examples (1)
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.
And so through this dark world they fleet / Divided, till in death they meet.
To flee, to escape, to speed away.
Usage- Intransitive
- Examples
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More examples (2)
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.
At these reproaches she fainted away; and when at length she revived, full of the profoundest grief, she declared to him that she must now depart from him, and, in obedience to a decree of destiny, fleet about the earth in pain and suffering, as a spectre, until the day of doom[.]
It began to be chill; the tide was rapidly fleeting seaward, the schooner settling more and more on her beam-ends.
To evanesce, disappear, die out.
Usage- Intransitive
- Examples
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More examples (1)
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!
To move up a rope, so as to haul to more advantage; especially to draw apart the blocks of a tackle.
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More examples (1)
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.
To move or change in position.
Usage- Intransitive
- of people
- Examples
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We got the long "stick" [...] down and "fleeted" aft, where it was secured.
To shift the position of dead-eyes when the shrouds are become too long.
Usage- Obsolete
To cause to slip down the barrel of a capstan or windlass, as a rope or chain.
To take the cream from; to skim.
Adjective
Swift in motion; light and quick in going from place to place.
Usage- Literary
- Examples
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In mail their horses clad, yet fleet and strong.
More examples (1)
[…]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[…]
Aye, the Chicopee, a fine-un, she were. Clean built and trig-lookin’! None more fleet in ‘64 than she...
Light; superficially thin; not penetrating deep, as soil.
Usage- Uncommon
- Examples
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fleet Soil, and that 'tis mixed with a great quantity of Earth, Marle, Mud or Clay, &c.
Adjective
moving very fast
- Synonyms
- Examples
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fleet of foot
the fleet scurrying of squirrels
More examples (3)
a swift current
swift flight of an arrow
a swift runner
Noun
group of aircraft operating together under the same ownership
- Broader terms
group of motor vehicles operating together under the same ownership
- Broader terms
a group of steamships operating together under the same ownership
- Broader terms
a group of warships organized as a tactical unit
- Broader terms
Verb
move along rapidly and lightly; skim or dart
- Broader terms
- Examples
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The hummingbird flitted among the branches
disappear gradually
- Examples
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The pain eventually passed off