ketch

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Commodore Preble hesitated to accept Decatur's offer, for he knew how greatly against success the odds were, but finally, in January, 1804, he told him to go ahead A small vessel known as a ketch had recently been captured from the Tripolitans, and Decatur selected this in which to make the venture.

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Definitions (8)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. noun Nautical A two-masted fore-and-aft-rigged sailing vessel with a mizzenmast stepped aft of a taller mainmast but forward of the rudder.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (3)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (3)

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Examples (50)

  • As the cargo of the ketch was mainly irreplaceable orange-coded supplies, its timely rescue was a double blessing. —  The Chronicles Of Pern: First Fall
  • A small vessel known as a ketch had recently been captured from the Tripolitans, and Decatur selected this in which to make the venture. —  American Men of Action
  • Closing her eyes, she drifted into a fantasy: that the glossy wood interior of the ketch was the heart of some great complicated musical instrument and that she waited at its center while it played. —  F ;SF - vol 086 issue 01 - January 1994
  • Fortified by the presence of Miss Smith, he pointed out the exact scene of the rescue without a tremor, and, when her father narrated the affair to the skipper, whom they found sitting on deck smoking a last pipe, listened undismayed to that astonished mariner's comments News of the mate's heroic conduct became general the next day, and work on the ketch was somewhat impeded in consequence. —  Short Cruises
  • The ketch, a two-masted vessel carrying from fifteen to twenty tons, carried on most of the coasting traffic, and occasionally ventured on a foreign voyage. —  The Old Coast Road From Boston to Plymouth
 

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Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English cache, from cacchen, to catch; see catch.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. Cf. Dutch kits, G. kits, kitz, French caiche, quaiche (from English); ult. (like caique, which is directly from French caïque = Italian caicco) from Turk, qāiq, qaīq, a boat, skiff.
 

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/kɛtʃ/
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