fleet

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A number of warships operating together under one command.
2. n. A group of vessels or vehicles, such as taxicabs or fishing boats, owned or operated as a unit.
3. adj. Moving swiftly; rapid or nimble. See Synonyms at fast¹.
4. adj. Fleeting; evanescent.
5. v. To move or pass swiftly.
6. v. To fade out; vanish.
7. v. Archaic To flow.
8. v. Obsolete To drift.
9. v. To cause (time) to pass quickly.
10. v. Nautical To alter the position of (tackle or rope, for example).

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. To float.
2. To swim.
3. To sail; navigate.
4. To flow; run, as water; flow away.
5. To overflow; abound.
6. To gutter, as a candle.
7. To fly swiftly; flit, as a light substance; pass away quickly.
8. Nautical, to change place: said of men at work: as, to fleet forward or aft in a boat.
9. To fly swiftly over; skim over the surface of: as, a ship that fleets the gulf.
10. To cause to pass swiftly or lightly.
11. Nautical, to change the position of: as, to fleet a tackle (to change its position after the blocks are drawn together so as to use it again); to fleet the men aft (to order men to move further aft). The word is used only in special phrases like the above; it is not applicable to every change of position. Thus, if one rope were fastened to a hawser or a shroud, one would say “Fleet that rope higher” or “lower,” as the case might be; but one would not say “Fleet that coil of rope.”
12. n. A number of ships or other vessels, in company, under the same command, or employed in the same service, particularly in war or in fishing: as, a fleet of men-of-war, or of war-canoes; the fishing-fleet on the Banks; the fleet of a steamship company.
13. n. Specifically, a number of vessels of war organized for offense or defense under one commander, with subordinate commanders of single vessels and sometimes of squadrons; a naval armament.
14. n. In fishing, a single line of 100 hooks: so called when the bultow was introduced in Newfoundland (1846).
15. n. An arm of the sea; an inlet; a river or creek: now used only as an element in place-names: as, Northfleet, Southfleet, Fleetditch.
16. Swift of motion; moving or able to move with rapidity; rapid.
17. To skim, as cream from milk.
18. Nautical, to skim up fresh water from the surface of (the sea), as practised at the mouth of the Rhone, of the Nile, etc.
19. Light; superficially fruitful; thin; not penetrating deep, as soil.
20. In a manner so as to affect only the surface; superficially.
21. n. A dialectal (Scotch) variant of flute.
22. Skimmed; skim: applied to skim-milk or to cheese made from it: as, fleet milk, fleet cheese.

Wiktionary

1. n. A group of vessels or vehicles.
2. n. nautical A number of vessels in company, especially war vessels; also, the collective naval force of a country, etc.
3. n. 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.
4. n. nautical, obsolete A flood; a creek or inlet, a bay or estuary, a river subject to the tide.
5. n. nautical A location, as on a navigable river, where barges are secured.
6. v. obsolete To float.
7. v. To pass over rapidly; to skim the surface of
8. v. To hasten over; to cause to pass away lightly, or in mirth and joy
9. v. nautical To move up a rope, so as to haul to more advantage; especially to draw apart the blocks of a tackle.
10. v. nautical, obsolete To shift the position of dead-eyes when the shrouds are become too long.
11. v. To cause to slip down the barrel of a capstan or windlass, as a rope or chain.
12. v. To take the cream from; to skim.
13. adj. literary Swift in motion; moving with velocity; light and quick in going from place to place; nimble; fast.
14. adj. uncommon Light; superficially thin; not penetrating deep, as soil.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. v. obsolete To sail; to float.
2. v. To fly swiftly; to pass over quickly; to hasten; to flit as a light substance.
3. v. (Naut.) To slip on the whelps or the barrel of a capstan or windlass; -- said of a cable or hawser.
4. v. (Naut.) To move or change in position; -- said of persons.
5. v. To pass over rapidly; to skin the surface of.
6. v. To hasten over; to cause to pass away lighty, or in mirth and joy.
7. v. To draw apart the blocks of; -- said of a tackle.
8. v. To cause to slip down the barrel of a capstan or windlass, as a rope or chain.
9. v. (Naut.) To move or change in position; used only in special phrases.
10. adj. Swift in motion; moving with velocity; light and quick in going from place to place; nimble.
11. adj. Prov. Eng. Light; superficially thin; not penetrating deep, as soil.
12. n. A number of vessels in company, especially war vessels; also, the collective naval force of a country, etc.
13. n. A flood; a creek or inlet; a bay or estuary; a river; -- obsolete, except as a place name, -- as Fleet Street in London.
14. n. A former prison in London, which originally stood near a stream, the Fleet (now filled up).
15. v. Prov. Eng. To take the cream from; to skim.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. group of motor vehicles operating together under the same ownership
2. adj. moving very fast
3. n. a group of warships organized as a tactical unit
4. v. move along rapidly and lightly; skim or dart
5. v. disappear gradually
6. n. group of aircraft operating together under the same ownership
7. n. a group of steamships operating together under the same ownership