Fleet


[fleet] /flit/

noun
1.
the largest organized unit of naval ships grouped for tactical or other purposes.
2.
the largest organization of warships under the command of a single officer.
3.
a number of naval vessels or vessels carrying armed crew members.
4.
a large group of ships, airplanes, trucks, etc., operated by a single company or under the same ownership:
He owns a fleet of cabs.
5.
a large group of airplanes, automobiles, etc., moving or operating together.
[fleet] /flit/
adjective, fleeter, fleetest.
1.
swift; rapid:
to be fleet of foot; a fleet horse.
verb (used without object)
2.
to move swiftly; fly.
3.
Nautical. to change position; shift.
4.
Archaic.

5.
Obsolete. to float; drift; swim.
verb (used with object)
6.
to cause (time) to pass lightly or swiftly.
7.
Nautical.

[fleet] /flit/
noun, British Dialect.
1.
an arm of the sea; inlet.
2.
a creek; stream; watercourse.
3.
the Fleet, a former prison in London, long used for debtors.
/fliːt/
noun
1.
a number of warships organized as a tactical unit
2.
all the warships of a nation
3.
a number of aircraft, ships, buses, etc, operating together or under the same ownership
/fliːt/
adjective
1.
rapid in movement; swift
2.
(poetic) fleeting; transient
verb
3.
(intransitive) to move rapidly
4.
(intransitive) (archaic) to fade away smoothly; glide
5.
(transitive) (nautical)

6.
(intransitive) (obsolete) to float or swim
7.
(transitive) (obsolete) to cause (time) to pass rapidly
/fliːt/
noun
1.
(mainly Southeast English) a small coastal inlet; creek
/fliːt/
noun the Fleet
1.
a stream that formerly ran into the Thames between Ludgate Hill and Fleet Street and is now a covered sewer
2.
Also called Fleet Prison. (formerly) a London prison, esp used for holding debtors
n.

Old English fleot “ship, raft, floating vessel,” from fleotan “to float” (see fleet (v.)). Sense of “naval force” is pre-1200. The Old English word also meant “creek, inlet, flow of water,” especially one into the Thames near Ludgate Hill, which lent its name to Fleet Street (home of newspaper and magazine houses, standing for “the English press” since 1882), Fleet prison, etc.
adj.

“swift,” 1520s, but probably older than the record; apparently from or cognate with Old Norse fliotr “swift,” and from the root of fleet (v.)). Related: Fleetness.
v.

Old English fleotan “to float, drift, flow, swim, sail,” later (c.1200) “to flow,” from Proto-Germanic *fleut- (cf. Old Frisian fliata, Old Saxon fliotan “to flow,” Old High German fliozzan “to float, flow,” German flieszen “to flow,” Old Norse fliota “to float, flow”), from PIE root *pleu- “to flow, run, swim” (see pluvial).

Meaning “to glide away like a stream, vanish imperceptibly” is from c.1200; hence “to fade, to vanish” (1570s). Related: Fleeted; fleeting.

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