cruise
Pluralcruises
Verbcruises, cruising, cruised
Pluralcruises
Formscruises, cruising, cruised
- 1A voyage on the sea or a lake, especially one taken for pleasure.
The couple celebrated their anniversary with a week-long cruise through the Mediterranean.
Several luxury cruises depart from Miami every weekend.
Note
Behind the pleasure voyage stands a Dutch verb, kruisen, "to cross, sail around," built on kruis, "cross," and ultimately Latin crux. Pleasure is the usual flavor, not a requirement: in Edwin A. Falk's Togo and the Rise of Japanese Sea Power (1936), Togo takes two ships on "a two day cruise." Lakes count too, as in the American novelist Winston Churchill's The Celebrity (1897), with "a three days' cruise up the lake."
- 2To sail from place to place, especially for pleasure.
Many sailors cruise leisurely along the coastline during the calm summer months.
The small boat cruised gently between the harbors at sunset.
Note
Small craft cruise as readily as liners do. Robert W. Chambers' The Younger Set (1907) has two young men who "cruised about in Gerald's dory" in their swimming suits. The verb is intransitive and pairs naturally with adverbs of wandering, such as about, around and along the coast, because the point is the sailing, not the arriving. When a destination matters, sail to is the better choice.
- 3To travel at a constant speed that gives the best operating efficiency.
Most airliners cruise at around five hundred miles per hour to conserve fuel.
The car cruises comfortably on long stretches of open road.
- 4To achieve an easy and decisive victory without serious difficulty.
The champions cruised past their rivals to win the title easily.
Favorites usually cruise through the early rounds of the tournament.
Similarcoast, breeze, sail, romp, waltz
Oppositestruggle
Note
Sports reporting's word for a win that never looks in doubt. It usually takes a preposition naming the result or what was overcome: Germany "cruised to a World Cup victory," a favorite cruises past a rival or through the early rounds. The image is of a vehicle at easy, steady speed. A narrow, hard-fought win calls for a different verb.
- 5The portion of an aircraft's flight at constant airspeed and altitude, between the climb and descent phases.
The autopilot maintained a steady altitude throughout the cruise.
Fuel burn drops significantly once the aircraft settles into cruise.
Note
Aviation's name for the long, level stretch of a flight, usually its most fuel-efficient part. It is often used without an article, the way takeoff and landing are: an aircraft climbs to cruise, settles into cruise, is at cruise. The matching verb is the steady-speed verb, which applies to cars as readily as to aircraft.
- 6To move leisurely around an area in the hope of finding something or attracting customers.
Police cars cruise the neighborhood after dark, watching for trouble.
Vendors cruised the beach all afternoon, selling cold drinks to tourists.
Similarpatrol, prowl, roam, ply
Note
Here the verb takes the place itself as its object: police cruise the neighborhood, vendors cruise the beach. No preposition is needed, unlike the sailing verb, which wanders about or along somewhere. The movement is slow and watchful, aimed at spotting trouble, a find or a customer. The same pattern lies behind the slangier uses for looking for a partner.
- 7To move around a particular area actively looking for a romantic or casual sexual partner.
On weekends he would cruise around the popular nightspots, hoping to find a partner.
She cruised through the festival crowd, scanning for someone to flirt with.
Similarprowl
- 8To show romantic or sexual interest in someone in an attempt to attract them as a casual partner.
Men would cruise her constantly whenever she went out alone.
She cruised the new guy at work for weeks before finally asking him out.
Similarproposition, pursue
Note
Where the roaming sense is about working a place, this one fixes on a person, who becomes the direct object. Nicole Seymour's Bad Environmentalism (2018) shows both uses at once: men busy "playing volleyball and cruising—including cruising Huff-Hannon." The aim is a casual sexual partner, so the word is franker than flirt. Keep it to casual speech.
- 9An event at which car enthusiasts drive their vehicles together as a group.
The local club organizes a monthly cruise along the coastal road.
Dozens of restored muscle cars lined up for the charity cruise.
Note
The car-club cruise moves, and that sets it apart from its near-synonym, the car show, where the vehicles stand parked for viewing. Here the cars themselves are on the road together, driven by the enthusiasts who own them. People who join one are said to cruise as well, and the matching verb simply means taking part.
- 10To take part in an event where car enthusiasts drive their vehicles together as a group.
Classic-car fans cruise downtown on the first Saturday of every month.
Hundreds of enthusiasts cruised together to raise money for charity.
- 11Of a baby, to walk while holding on to furniture or other objects for support.
Most infants begin to cruise around ten months, steadying themselves on low furniture.
He cruised confidently along the sofa but still couldn't stand unaided.
Note
A milestone term from child development. The baby gets around by holding on to furniture or other supports for balance. The stage typically emerges around ten months and comes before independent walking, so parents and clinicians use the word to mark progress. A baby who cruises is not yet walking alone; the word names the supported stage, not the first free steps.
- 12A period of time spent serving in the Marine Corps.
After a four-year cruise in the Corps, he returned to civilian life.
Old buddies often swap stories about their first cruise.
Similartour, hitch, stint, enlistment
Note
Informal American service talk that counts a hitch in the Marines the way sailors count a voyage. A cruise has a length, as in "my cruise of four years" in the Marine Corps Recruiters' Bulletin of 1919. It can also be completed: in George Barnett's Marine Corps Commandant: A Memoir, he is ordered to a ship "to finish my cruise." In formal writing, enlistment or term of service is the safer choice.
- 13To survey a tract of forest in order to estimate the volume of timber it will yield.
Foresters cruise the stand carefully before any logging contract is signed.
They cruised forty acres of pine to estimate its lumber value.
Similarsurvey, assess, appraise
Note
Forestry's term for a timber survey. The forester samples a stand for species, size and density, and turns those findings into an estimate of the lumber the land will yield. The verb can take the land as its object (cruise forty acres, cruise the stand) or stand alone when the land is understood. Outside forestry it would read as aimless travel, so the context needs to make the trade clear.
- 14A period during which a user takes a reduced dose of performance-enhancing drugs rather than stopping them entirely, in contrast to a full-dose phase known as a blast.
Between contests he kept a steady cruise to hold onto his gains.
A long cruise lets the body recover while keeping some of the benefits.
Oppositeblast
Note
Gym slang, and half of a pair: a cruise is the low-dose stretch set against a blast, the full-dose cycle. The drugs are reduced rather than stopped. The word borrows the image of easing back to a comfortable steady speed instead of switching the engine off. Outside bodybuilding circles the term is opaque, so in general writing "maintenance dose" says the same thing plainly.
- 15To maintain a reduced dose of performance-enhancing drugs for a period rather than stopping them between cycles.
She chose to cruise through the off-season to protect her health.
Experienced users often cruise rather than coming off entirely.
Oppositeblast
Note
The verb's most familiar setting is the fixed phrase blast and cruise. It names a regimen that alternates full-dose cycles with reduced ones and never comes off entirely. People cruise between contests or through an off-season, and the verb usually takes no object. Like the noun for the low-dose phase, it is bodybuilders' slang and is best avoided in general writing.
- 16A small cup or vessel, especially one used for holding liquids.
He filled the cruise with olive oil for the lamp.
A small earthenware cruise held the last of the wine.
Note
A different word that happens to share the spelling. Here cruise is a variant of cruse, a small cup or vessel, with a history separate from the Dutch kruisen behind the sea voyage. The King James Bible spells it cruse, as in the widow's "little oil in a cruse" in 1 Kings 17:12. In modern writing, cruse avoids any confusion with the voyage.
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Practice
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Origin
English borrowed this from Dutch kruisen ("to cross, to sail around"), which came from kruis ("cross"), from Middle Dutch cruce, and ultimately from Latin crux.