fleet

noun fleets · fleete

1. collective A group of vessels or vehicles, generally operating in a unified way or traveling together. A fleet of warships is heading this way.
2. collective The vehicles commercially owned by a person, company or agency. She owns a fleet of private medical transport vans.

   Similar: carfleet, company cars

3. collective 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. We must invest in our fleet for our national security.
4. British Royal Navy, collective 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.
5. collective A large, coordinated group of people. 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 ti
6. Any group of associated items. This is especially true in distributed printing environments, where a fleet of printers is shared by users on a network.
7. Scotland A street gang.
8. The individual waves in corrugated fiberboard.

Similar: fleet

noun fleets

1. dialectal An arm of the sea; a run of water, such as an inlet or a creek. a certain Flete [...] through which little Boats used to come to the aforesaid Town
2. A location, as on a navigable river, where barges are secured.

Similar: fleet

verb fleets · fleeting · fleeted

1. intransitive, obsolete To float. Legions of Spirits fleeting in the aire, Direct our Bullets and our weapons pointes […]
2. ambitransitive To pass over rapidly; to skim the surface of. 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
3. ambitransitive To hasten over; to cause to pass away lightly, or in mirth and joy. 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.
4. intransitive To flee, to escape, to speed away. 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 fr
5. intransitive To evanesce, disappear, die out. 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!
6. To move up a rope, so as to haul to more advantage; especially to draw apart the blocks of a tackle. 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.
7. intransitive, of people To move or change in position. We got the long "stick" [...] down and "fleeted" aft, where it was secured.
8. obsolete To shift the position of dead-eyes when the shrouds are become too long.
9. To cause to slip down the barrel of a capstan or windlass, as a rope or chain.
10. To take the cream from; to skim.

adjective fleeter · more fleet · fleetest · most fleet

1. literary Swift in motion; light and quick in going from place to place. In mail their horses clad, yet fleet and strong.

   Similar: nimble, fast

2. uncommon Light; superficially thin; not penetrating deep, as soil. fleet Soil, and that 'tis mixed with a great quantity of Earth, Marle, Mud or Clay, &c.

noun fleets

1. Yorkshire, obsolete Obsolete form of flet (“house, floor, large room”). Fire and fleet and candle-lighte

Similar: fleet

proper noun

1. A river (the River Fleet) in London, England, now buried underground, that flowed under the Eastern end of the present Fleet Street. This is hard-core London, and just before Farringdon station you will be able to glimpse the vast steel pipe that carries what was the Fleet River and is now the Fleet sewer over your head. The Fleet looks safely contained now, although you never know. It surprises me that no terrorist has made comm
2. A former prison (the Fleet Prison) in London, which originally stood near the stream.
3. A river, the Water of Fleet, in Dumfries and Galloway council area, Scotland.
4. A river in Highland council area, Scotland, which flows into Loch Fleet.
5. A town and civil parish with a town council in Hart district, Hampshire, England (OS grid ref SU8054).
6. A village and civil parish in South Holland district, Lincolnshire, England (OS grid ref TF3823).
7. A hamlet in Alberta, Canada.
8. A surname.