convoy

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. The act of accompanying or escorting, especially for protective purposes.
2. n. An accompanying and protecting force, as of ships or troops.
3. n. A group, as of ships or motor vehicles, traveling together with a protective escort or for safety or convenience.
4. v. To accompany, especially for protection; escort: warships convoying merchant vessels across the Atlantic.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. To accompany on the way for protection, either by sea or land; escort: as, ships of war convoyed the Jamaica fleet; troops convoyed the baggage-wagons.
2. To accompany for safety or guidance; attend as an escort on a journey.
3. To convey.
4. n. Conveyance.
5. n. The act of accompanying and escorting for protection or defense; escort.
6. n. The protection afforded by an accompanying escort, as of troops, a vessel of war, etc.
7. n. An escort or accompanying and protecting force; a convoying vessel, fleet, or troop.
8. n. The ship, fleet, party, or thing conducted or escorted and protected; that which is convoyed: as, in the fog the frigate lost sight of her convoy.
9. n. A friction-brake for carriages.

Wiktionary

1. n. nautical One or more merchant ships sailing in company to the same general destination under the protection of naval vessels
2. n. A group of vehicles travelling together for safety, especially one with an escort
3. v. transitive To escort a group of vehicles, and provide protection.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. v. To accompany for protection, either by sea or land; to attend for protection; to escort.
2. n. The act of attending for defense; the state of being so attended; protection; escort.
3. n. A vessel or fleet, or a train or trains of wagons, employed in the transportation of munitions of war, money, subsistence, clothing, etc., and having an armed escort.
4. n. A protection force accompanying ships, etc., on their way from place to place, by sea or land; an escort, for protection or guidance.
5. n. obsolete Conveyance; means of transportation.
6. n. A drag or brake applied to the wheels of a carriage, to check their velocity in going down a hill.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a collection of merchant ships with an escort of warships
2. v. escort in transit
3. n. a procession of land vehicles traveling together
4. n. the act of escorting while in transit