Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A small three-masted Mediterranean vessel with both square and lateen sails.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A small three-masted vessel, formerly much used by the Algerine corsairs, and now in use to some extent in Mediterranean commerce. It differs from the felucca chiefly in having several square sails as well as lateen sails, while the latter has only lateen sails.
Wiktionary
- n. A small, three-masted Mediterranean transport ship
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Naut.) A small three-masted vessel, with projecting bow stern and convex decks, used in the Mediterranean for transporting merchandise, etc. It carries large square sails, or both. Xebecs were formerly armed and used by corsairs.
Etymologies
- Either from French chébec, from Spanish xabeque (modern jabeque) or Catalan xabec, ultimately from Arabic شبّاك (šabbāk, "small warship, fishing boat"). (Wiktionary)
- French chebec, probably from Catalan xabec, from Arabic šabbāk, from šabaka, to entwine, fasten; see śbk in Semitic roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“He was the master of a small three-masted vessel called a xebec, armed for privateering, the _San Antonio_, manned by Ivizans, engaged in constant strife with the galliots of the Algerian Moors and with the ships of England, the enemy of Spain.”
“Yet all such speed was invisible, as the wind vanishes when a swift xebec scuds before a tempest on the Ocean of Urth. We drifted so lazily that if I had not had faith in Apheta and the Hierarchs, I would have feared we would never reach the ship at all and be lost forever in that endless night.”
“She was a xebec and looked handy enough -- I have always been lucky in my ships.”
“SHE WAS a xebec, low in the water and narrow at the waist.”
“I thank you for my own part," replied I; "but in conscience could you have abandoned us, after taking away our horses, and making us go on board the xebec, whether we would or not?”
Complete Project Gutenberg Collection of Memoirs of Napoleon
“The cannonade which Bonaparte had heard since the morning, and the explosion of a Turkish gunboat, which was blown up by the artillery of the xebec, led him to fear that our situation was really perilous.”
Complete Project Gutenberg Collection of Memoirs of Napoleon
“Cairo obliged us to leave the xebec and get on board a djerm.”
Complete Project Gutenberg Collection of Memoirs of Napoleon
“He had received a wound in the right hand, when on board the xebec 'Cerf'.”
Complete Project Gutenberg Collection of Memoirs of Napoleon
“Here," he said, pointing to the lateen-rigged xebec; "you see that felucca-boat?”
“And some of the day the xebec came and hit us abaft the beam.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘xebec’.
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Visuals
A list of words which yield surprising, beautiful, amusing, or otherwise noteworthy images here on Wordnik.
photochrom, fufluns, thank you, cool l..., postcard, picture postcard, cricket, physiological ill..., Gakuryū Ishii, ametropia, One Froggy Evening, rhodopsin, Santiago Calatrava and 636 more...
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Gene Wolfe
Please contribute your favorite words from any of Gene Wolfe’s books to this prize-winning list.
In case you come across words in this list which are too commonplace to fit in, please ...gallipot, roost, badelaire, oblesque, execration, dhole, amschaspand, arctother, chalcedony, penitence, asimi, autarch and 839 more...
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Not 250 Spelling Words Again
Yet more spelling words for intermediate to advanced spellers.
kyoodle, heimin, feis, menarche, cordwainer, gherao, zythum, accidie, anastomosis, boustrophedon, oleum, penicillin and 238 more...
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Logolepsy
"Luciferous Logolepsy is a collection of over 9,000 obscure English words. Though the definition of an 'English' word might seem to be straightforward, it is not. There exist so many adopted, deriv...
Anschauung, Areopagus, Argus, Briarean, Dei gratia, Dei judicium, Deo volente, Duecento, Foehn, Geflugelte Worte, Gegenschein, Hakenkreuz and 9230 more...
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Ends with C but not with "-ic"
bloc, roc, arc, orc, disc, sac, xebec, havoc, bivouac, sumac, maniac, insomniac and 418 more...
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scrabble j q x z 4 and 5 letter words
revising for a competition 30 games
in 24 hours
5-Letter words with J, X, Q or Z
J
X
ADDAX ADMIX AFFIX ANNEX ATAXY AUXIN AXELS AXIAL AXILE AXILS A...azan, azon, boxy, brux, buzz, calx, chez, coax, coxa, cozy, crux, czar and 152 more...
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phrontistery-x
from phrontistery.info
xanthareel, xanthic, xanthippe, xanthocarpous, xanthochroia, xanthochroic, xanthocomic, xanthocyanopsy, xanthoderm, xanthodont, xanthoma, xanthometer and 82 more...
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phrontistery-x
from phrontistery.info
xanthareel, xanthic, xanthippe, xanthocarpous, xanthochroia, xanthochroic, xanthocomic, xanthocyanopsy, xanthoderm, xanthodont, xanthoma, xanthometer and 82 more...
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Out to Sea
If I had a boat
I'd go out on the ocean
And if I had a pony
I'd ride him on my boat
And we could all together
Go out on the ocean
Me upon my pony on my boat.boat, ship, skiff, barge, canoe, catamaran, yacht, scow, lifeboat, launch, ketch, dory and 303 more...
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jaradgiese's Words
paronomasia, ostensible, insouciant, sobriquet, burlesque, insalubrious, apotheosis, hyperbole, connubial, felicity, florid, conurbation and 642 more...
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The Aubrey/Maturin List I'm Gonna Mak...
I'm wading through Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin novels one by one, and someday, I'll wade through them again and list all the words I learned while reading them.
Edit: I started ma...studdingsail, carronade, mumchance, grumlin-futtocks, crosscat-harpings, holystone, sennit, orlop, orchitis, negus, kevel, altumal and 1112 more...
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azd's Words
adamantine, abatial, ablate, ablative, abrogate, accretive, acromegaly, acrostic, actinism, actinic, acuity, adduce and 968 more...
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pixistix's Words
cumquat, circumlocution, panoply, propinquity, contumely, quietus, fardel, tmesis, tipsy, giddy, trudge, vortex and 211 more...
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sionnach's Words
contumely, fomite, holmgang, poltroon, eleemosynary, obsidian, nugatory, grindcore, felch, recrudescent, pyx, parenteral and 3271 more...
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Favorite Five-Letter Words
Just what it sounds like. My favorites. Five letters.
ennui, barfy, samba, schwa, beefy, chunk, queef, spasm, skulk, bowel, elbow, fruit and 235 more...
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Interesting Scrabble words
Interesting words worth @ least 15 points.
smoochy, zareba, hyphal, djellaba, cloque, pyxidium, qindarka, squiffy, howbeit, chthonic, quinta, azimuthal and 264 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for xebec.
milosrdenstvi Also xebeque. May 21, 2010
knitandpurl "The steersmen steer the xebecs between steep, sheer clefts, where reefs prevent sheltered berth; there, the tempests whelm the decks, then wreck the keels — the helms, left crewless whenever the elements beset these crewmen."
Eunoia by Christian Bök (upgraded edition), p 41 May 21, 2010
reesetee So far, I haven't a clue. :-) Feb 11, 2008
chained_bear Yeah...thanks... I'm trying very hard not to give away plot points and stuff in them, in case anyone hasn't read them and wants to. Feb 11, 2008
reesetee I'm loving these O'Brian quotes, chained_bear. :-) Feb 11, 2008
chained_bear "'Mr Powell and Mr Comfrey are to go straight to Malta in that storeship over there.'
"'The xebec, or the polacre?'
'The vessel to the right,' said Graham somewhat testily. 'The vessel that is so busy, with sailors creeping up the masts.'"
--Patrick O'Brian, The Ionian Mission, 80 Feb 11, 2008
reesetee A small, three-masted vessel of the Mediterranean, formerly much used by corsairs, now employed to some extent in commerce. Also spelled chebeck, zebec, and zebeck.
Feb 11, 2008