fleet

noun

1. A group of vessels or vehicles.

   “He did discourse to us of the Dutch fleete being abroad, eighty-five of them still, and are now at the Texell, he believes, in expectation of our Eastland ships coming home with masts and hempe, and our loaden Hambrough ships going to Hambrough.”

   “It was planning to use an '807' for one day only as part of a shakedown test, ahead of the fleet's formal entry to service which is currently planned for November.”

2. 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.”

3. 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 tired.”

4. A number of vessels in company, especially war vessels; also, the collective naval force of a country, etc.

   “Despite the line proving to be a useful strategic route for men and supplies to the British naval fleets stationed at Scapa Flow in both world wars, the Duke's legacy looked to have passed into history when it was listed for closure in the infamous Beeching report.”

5. (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.
6. The individual waves in corrugated fiberboard.
7. (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”

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

8. A location, as on a navigable river, where barges are secured.
9. (Yorkshire, alt-of, obsolete)Obsolete form of flet (“house, floor, large room”).

   “Fire and fleet and candle-lighte”

verb

1. (intransitive, obsolete)To float.

   “Legions of Spirits fleeting in the aire, Direct our Bullets and our weapons pointes […]”

   “Antony: Our force by land / Hath nobly held; our sever'd navy too, / Have knit again, and fleet, threat'ning most sea-like.”

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.”

   “And so through this dark world they fleet / Divided, till in death they meet.”

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 from the gallows did his fell soul fleet, And, whilst thou lay'st in thy unhallow'd dam, Infused itself in thee; for thy desires Are wolfish, bloody, starved, and ravenous.”

   “It began to be chill; the tide was rapidly fleeting seaward, the schooner settling more and more on her beam-ends.”

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)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.

adj

1. (literary)Swift in motion; light and quick in going from place to place.

   “In mail their horses clad, yet fleet and strong.”

   “[…]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[…]”

   “Aye, the Chicopee, a fine-un, she were. Clean built and trig-lookin’! None more fleet in ‘64 than she...”

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.”

name

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 common cause with the surly and embittered Fleet, which, in Peter Ackroyd's words became 'a river of death' as it sidled through the meanest streets of London en route to the Thames.”

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.