fleet

Etymology 1

From Middle English flete, flet (“fleet”), from Old English flēot (“ship”), likely related to Proto-West Germanic *flotōn, from Proto-Germanic *flutōną (“to float”).

noun

1. A group of vessels or vehicles.
2. Any group of associated items.
   This is especially true in distributed printing environments, where a fleet of printers is shared by users on a network. 2004, Jim Hoskins, Building an on Demand Computing Environment with IBM
3. A large, coordinated group of people.
   And after the past few days, in which a fleet of Republicans and the president himself have utilized Jews as human shields for racist rhetoric, the Jews are tired, tired, tired of being used as defenses against naked racism, tired of being used to justify conditions at detention camps. Just plain tired. 17 July 2019, Talia Lavin, “When Non-Jews Wield Anti-Semitism as Political Shield”, in GQ
4. (nautical) A number of vessels in company, especially war vessels; also, the collective naval force of a country, etc.
   Despite the line proving to be a useful strategic route for men and supplies to the British naval fleets stationed at Scapa Flow in both world wars, the Duke's legacy looked to have passed into history when it was listed for closure in the infamous Beeching report. October 20 2021, Paul Stephen, “Leisure and pleasure on the Far North Line”, in RAIL, number 942, page 48
5. (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.

Etymology 2

From Middle English flete, flete (“bay, gulf”), from Old English flēot (“a bay, gulf, an arm of the sea, estuary, the mouth of a river”), from Proto-West Germanic *fleut, from Proto-Germanic *fleutą. Cognate with Dutch vliet (“stream, river, creek, inlet”), German Fleet (“watercourse, canal”).

noun

1. (dialectal, obsolete outside of place names) An arm of the sea; a run of water, such as an inlet or a creek.
   a certain Flete … through which little Boats used to come to the aforesaid Town 1723, John Lewis, The History and Antiquities, Ecclesiastical and Civil, of the Isle of Tenet in Kent
   Together wove we nets to entrap the fish In floods and sedgy fleets. 1628, A. Matthewes (translator), Aminta (originally by Torquato Tasso)
2. (nautical) A location, as on a navigable river, where barges are secured.

Etymology 3

From Middle English fleten (“float”), from Old English flēotan (“float”), from Proto-West Germanic *fleutan, from Proto-Germanic *fleutaną.

verb

1. (obsolete, intransitive) To float.
2. (transitive, intransitive) To pass over rapidly; to skim the surface of.
3. (transitive, intransitive) To hasten over; to cause to pass away lightly, or in mirth and joy.
   And so through this dark world they fleet / Divided, till in death they meet. 1817-18, Percy Shelley, Rosalind and Helen, lines 626-627
4. (intransitive) To flee, to escape, to speed away.
5. (intransitive) To evanesce, disappear, die out.
6. (nautical) To move up a rope, so as to haul to more advantage; especially to draw apart the blocks of a tackle.
   To fleet tackle when pennant block is used, the keeper, with a strap and heaver, racks both parts of hawser together near pennant block, and the tackle is then overhauled and hooked by the men assigned to those duties. 1899, Regulations for the Government of the Life-Saving Service of the United States
7. (nautical, intransitive, of people) To move or change in position.
   We got the long "stick" … down and "fleeted" aft, where it was secured. 1898, Frank T. Bullen, The Cruise of the "Cachalot"
8. (nautical, obsolete) To shift the position of dead-eyes when the shrouds are become too long.
9. To cause to slip down the barrel of a capstan or windlass, as a rope or chain.
10. To take the cream from; to skim.

adj

1. (literary) Swift in motion; light and quick in going from place to place.
2. (uncommon) Light; superficially thin; not penetrating deep, as soil.

Etymology 4

See flet.

noun

1. (Yorkshire) Obsolete form of flet (“house, floor, large room”).
   Fire and fleet and candle-lighte 1686, "Lyke Wake Dirge" as printed in The Oxford Book of English Verse (1900) p. 361