ship

Definitions · Examples · Pronunciations · Etymologies · Related · Statistics · Comments ·

“

In spite of the name the ship is English, and is a barque of about 600 tons register.

—Dead Man's Rock

View all »
Definitions (72)

American Heritage Dictionary (20)

noun A vessel of considerable size for deep-water navigation.
noun A sailing vessel having three or more square-rigged masts.
noun An aircraft or spacecraft.

17 more from this dictionary »

Century Dictionary (42)

A vessel of considerable size adapted to navigation: a general term for sea-going vessels of every kind, except boats. Ships are of various sizes and fitted for various uses, and receive different names, according to their rig, motive power (wind or steam or both), and the purposes to which they are applied, as war-ships, transports, merchantmen, barks, brigs, schooners, luggers, sloops, xebecs, galleys, etc. The name ship, as descriptive of a particular rig, and as roughly implying a certain size, has been used to designate a vessel furnished with a bowsprit and three masts—a mainmast, a foremast, and a mizzenmast—each of which is composed of a lower mast, a topmast, and a topgallantmast, and carries a certain number of square sails. The square sails on the mizzen distinguish a ship from a bark, a bark having only fore and-aft sails on the mizzen. But the development of coastwise navigation, in which the largest vessels have generally a schooner rig and sometimes four masts, has gone far toward rendering this restricted application of the word of little value. Owing to increase of size, and especially increase in length, some sailing vessels now have four masts, and this rig is said to have certain advantages. Until recent times wood, such as oak, pine, etc., was the material of which all ships were constructed, but it is being rapidly superseded by iron and steel; and in Great Britain, which is the chief ship-building country in the world, the tonnage of the wooden vessels constructed is small compared with that of vessels built of iron. The first iron vessel classed at Lloyd's was built at Liverpool in 1838, but iron barges and small vessels had been constructed long before this. Four-masted vessels which are square-rigged on all four masts are called four-masted ships; those which have fore-and-aft sails on the after mast are called four-masted barks. See also cuts under beam, 3, body-plan, counter, forebody, forecastle, keel, poop, and prow. Swithe go shape a shippe of shides and of bordes. Piers Plowman (B), ix. 131. Simon espyed a ship of warre. The Noble Fisherman (Child's Ballads, V. 332).
Eccles., a vessel formed like the hull of a ship, in which incense was kept: same as navicula, 1. Tyndale. Acerra, a schyp for censse. Nominale MS., xv. Cent. (Halliwell.) A ship, such as was used in the church to put frankincense in. Baret, 1580. (Halliwell.)
About ship! See ready about, under about, adv.

39 more from this dictionary »

View all »
Examples (50)

And then, as the ship was attempting to leave after it marooned us, it struck an iceberg and sank What about the crew who was on it then The man's lips became thin. — 106 - Peril In The North
I do not think a short stay here will hurt his health, particularly as his ship is at anchor, and his mind not harassed. — The Life of Nelson, Vol. II
It approached rapidly, for the ship was a fast one. — 119 - The Time Terror
The diplomats said the ship is Italian-operated and flies a Panamanian flag. — News on www.kyivpost.com
As soon as a ship is attacked they send a signal ... — AskMen.com - HOME PAGE

More examples »

Stats

This word has been looked up 214 times.

Photos from

Add a related word »
Related

Used in the Same Context

vessel · station · car · city · house · system · body · enemy · world · fleet

Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (3)

American Heritage Dictionary (1)

Middle English, from Old English scip.

Century Dictionary (2)

from Middle English ship, schip, schup, ssip, schippe (plural shippes, schipes), from Anglo-Saxon scip, scyp (plural scipu) = Old Saxon skip = OFries. skip, schip = Dutch schip = Middle Low German schip, schep, Low German schipp = Old High German scif, scef, Middle High German schif, German schiff (hence (from Old High German) Italian schifo = Spanish Portuguese esquife = French esquif, later English skiff, a boat) = Icelandic skip = Swedish skepp = Danish skib = Gothic (Moesogothic) skip, a ship; cf. Old High German scif, a containing vessel, sciphi, a vial (cf. English vessel, a containing utensil, and a ship); root unknown. There is no way of deriving the word from Anglo-Saxon scapan, etc., shape, form, of which the secondary form scippan, scyppan, has no real relation to scip (see shape); and it cannot be related to L. scapha, from Greek σκάφη, also σκάφος, a bowl, a small boat, skiff, properly a vessel hollowed out, from σκάπτειν, dig (see scapha).
from Middle English shipen, schipen, from Anglo-Saxon scipian = Dutch schepen = Middle Low German schepen = Middle High German G. schiffen, ship, = Norwegian skipa, skjepa, skæpa = Swedish skeppa = Danish skibe, ship: see ship, n. Cf. equip.

Pronunciations
Record your own »

/ʃɪp/

by American Heritage

Charts

Bubble size: how much this word was used in a year

Bubble height: used more or less than expected, vs. all uses evenly distributed

You can expect to see this word several times a day.

ship

View all »
Definitions (72)

American Heritage Dictionary (20)

Century Dictionary (42)

GNU Webster's 1913 (4)

WordNet (6)

Elsewhere on the web

View all »
Examples (50)

Tags

Stats

stop updating
On Twitter

Photos from

Add a related word »
Related

Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the Same Context

Word Family

Etymologies (3)

American Heritage Dictionary (1)

Century Dictionary (2)

Pronunciations
Record your own »

Charts

Recently looked up

Recent Favorites

Recent Pronunciations

ship

View all » Definitions (72)

View all » Examples (50)

Tags

Stats

stop updating On Twitter

Photos from

Add a related word » Related

synonyms:

synonyms:

Etymologies (3)

Pronunciations Record your own »

Charts

Recently looked up

Recent Favorites

Recent Pronunciations

View all »
Definitions (72)

View all »
Examples (50)

stop updating
On Twitter

Add a related word »
Related

Pronunciations
Record your own »