fleet

Pluralfleets

Formsfleets, fleeting, fleeted

1. 1
   nouncountable

   A group of vessels or vehicles operated together as a unit.

   The airline expanded its fleet with a dozen new aircraft.

   A fleet of taxis waited outside the station.

   Similarconvoy, flotilla, squadron

   Note

   Underneath lies the oldest meaning, 'ship': Old English flēot meant a vessel, and it likely goes back to a Germanic verb 'to float'. Pepys in 1665 counts the Dutch fleete at sea, eighty-five strong. A rail magazine in 2024 describes a train operator's fleet entering service. The word now covers anything run together as a set, and it usually takes 'of' plus a plural: a fleet of taxis, a fleet of aircraft.

2. 2
   nouncountable

   A number of vessels in company, especially warships; also the entire naval force of a country.

   The admiral ordered the fleet to blockade the southern ports.

   Britain's fleet dominated the seas for much of the nineteenth century.

   Similarnavy, armada, flotilla, squadron

   Note

   Here the word narrows to the sea and, above all, to warships. In the plural it can name the separate forces a navy keeps in different waters, as with the British naval fleets stationed at Scapa Flow in both world wars. The general sense covers any group run together. This one carries the weight of naval command, so a fleet is ordered to blockade, sail or engage.

3. 3
   adjectiveliterary

   Fast and nimble in movement, covering ground quickly and with a light step.

   The fleet messenger reached the castle before nightfall.

   Her fleet steps barely seemed to touch the ground.

   Similarfast, nimble

   Oppositeslow, sluggish, plodding, lumbering

   Note

   The adjective of this family is the one still met in print. Milton writes 'In mail their horses clad, yet fleet and strong'. Kenneth Grahame's disaster in The Wind in the Willows is 'fleet and unforeseen', and the keeper in The Lighthouse (2019) boasts that no ship was more fleet. Nimble and fast are close, but fleet is the literary choice. It compares either way: fleeter or more fleet.

4. 4
   nouncountable

   A group of associated items considered together as a single set.

   The data center operates a fleet of identical storage devices.

   Engineers deployed a fleet of weather stations across the valley.

   Similararray, bank, battery, cluster, network

5. 5
   nouncountable

   A large group of people acting together in a coordinated way.

   A fleet of nurses was dispatched to the disaster zone.

   The campaign relied on a fleet of canvassers knocking on doors.

   Similararmy, team, squad, battalion, host

6. 6
   nouncountable

   A body of ships under one command that is larger than a squadron; also, a rear admiral's command of five ships of the line plus smaller vessels in any number.

   The rear admiral's fleet comprised five ships of the line and numerous escorts.

   Command of a fleet placed him above every squadron commander in the theater.

   Note

   Royal Navy usage turned the word into a fixed rung of command, ranked above the squadron and tied to an admiral. The older phrasing counts warships as "sail," so five sail-of-the-line simply means five line-of-battle ships. In ordinary writing, the general naval sense covers any body of warships. Keep this one for formal British naval organization, where fleet and squadron are distinct ranks and never interchangeable.

7. 7
   verbintransitive

   To get away at speed, fleeing or escaping from something.

   The outlaws fleet across the border before dawn breaks.

   We watched the startled herd fleet over the open plain.

   Similarflee, escape, speed, race, dash

   Oppositestay, linger

   Note

   This was not only Shakespeare's word. Stevenson still has it in Treasure Island, where 'the tide was rapidly fleeting seaward' as the schooner settled on her beam-ends. The participle there is plainly a verb of motion: water speeding off, with nothing ornamental about it. Flee is the everyday verb, and fleet adds a sense of quickness to the going.

8. 8
   verbtransitive

   To remove the cream from milk; to skim.

   Dairymaids would fleet the fresh milk each morning before the cream soured.

   They fleet the cream and churn it into butter.

   Similarskim

9. 9
   verbtransitive or intransitive

   To pass rapidly over something; to skim its surface.

   His fingers fleet across the piano keys in the final passage.

   The searchlight fleeted over the rooftops without pausing.

   Similarskim, flit, glide, sweep, fly

   Oppositelinger, dwell

10. 10
    nouncountable

    A spot on a navigable river or waterway where barges are made fast and secured.

    Like a taxi rank where vehicles wait their turn: except here it's barges tied up on a river.

    Each evening the coal barges crowded into the fleet below the town.

    The bargeman steered toward the fleet where the other vessels lay tied up for the night.

    Similarmooring, anchorage, berth

    Note

    The watery fleet of the creek or inlet is put to work here: on a navigable river it is the place where barges are secured. It is bargemen's vocabulary, so 'the fleet below the town' may mean a mooring rather than a group of boats. Context tells you whether the barges are the fleet or are lying in it.

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