English

Proper noun

Fleet

1. The stream that ran where Fleet Street now runs.
2. A former prison in London, which originally stood near the stream.

German

Etymology

From German Low German, from Middle Low German vlēt. Cognate to Dutch vliet, English fleet.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fleːt/

Noun

Fleet n ‎(genitive Fleets, plural Fleete)

1. a watercourse through marshland
2. a kind of city canal similar to the Dutch gracht, found in Hamburg and some other northern German cities

Declension

English

Noun

fleet ‎(plural fleets)

1. A group of vessels or vehicles.
2. Any group of associated items.
   • 2004, Jim Hoskins, Building an on Demand Computing Environment with IBM

     This is especially true in distributed printing environments, where a fleet of printers is shared by users on a network.

3. (nautical) A number of vessels in company, especially war vessels; also, the collective naval force of a country, etc.
4. (nautical, British Royal Navy) 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.

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English flet, flete, from Old English flēot ‎(“river, estuary”)

Noun

fleet ‎(plural fleets)

1. (obsolete) A flood; a creek or inlet, a bay or estuary, a river subject to the tide. cognate to Low German fleet
   • Matthewes

     Together wove we nets to entrap the fish / In floods and sedgy fleets.

2. (nautical) A location, as on a navigable river, where barges are secured.

Derived terms

Etymology 3

From Middle English fleten ‎(“float”), from Old English flēotan ‎(“float”)

Verb

fleet ‎(third-person singular simple present fleets, present participle fleeting, simple past and past participle fleeted)

1. (obsolete) To float.

   [Antony] "Our sever'd navy too,
   Have knit again, and fleet, threat'ning most sea-like." -- Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra

2. To pass over rapidly; to skim the surface of

   a ship that fleets the gulf

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Spenser to this entry?)

3. To hasten over; to cause to pass away lightly, or in mirth and joy
   • Shakespeare

     Many young gentlemen flock to him, and fleet the time carelessly.

   And so through this dark world they fleet / Divided, till in death they meet; -- Percy Shelley, Rosalind and Helen.

4. (nautical) To move up a rope, so as to haul to more advantage; especially to draw apart the blocks of a tackle.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Totten to this entry?)

5. (nautical, intransitive, of people) To move or change in position.
   • F. T. Bullen

     We got the long "stick" […] down and "fleeted" aft, where it was secured.

6. (nautical, obsolete) To shift the position of dead-eyes when the shrouds are become too long.
7. To cause to slip down the barrel of a capstan or windlass, as a rope or chain.
8. To take the cream from; to skim.

Translations

Adjective

fleet ‎(comparative fleeter or more fleet, superlative fleetest or most fleet)

1. (literary) Swift in motion; moving with velocity; light and quick in going from place to place; nimble; fast.
   • Milton

     In mail their horses clad, yet fleet and strong.

   • 1908: Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows

     […] 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 […]

2. (uncommon) Light; superficially thin; not penetrating deep, as soil.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Mortimer to this entry?)

Derived terms

• fleetfooted