fleet

1. (dialectal, obsolete outside of place names) An arm of the sea; a run of water, such as an inlet or a creek.Examples: "a certain Flete [...] through which little Boats used to come to the aforesaid Town"; "Together wove we nets to entrap the fish In floods and sedgy fleets."dialectal

2. (nautical) A location, as on a navigable river, where barges are secured.

1. (obsolete, intransitive) To float.Examples: "Legions of Spirits fleeting in the aire, Direct our Bullets and our weapons pointes […]"; "Antony: Our force by land / Hath nobly held; our sever'd navy too, / Have knit again, and fleet, threat'ning most sea-like."intransitiveobsolete

2. (ambitransitive) To pass over rapidly; to skim the surface of.Examples: "Long were to tell the troublous stormes, that tosse The private state, and make the life unsweet Who swelling sayles in Caspian sea doth crosse, And in frayle wood on Adrian gulf doth fleet"ambitransitive

3. (ambitransitive) To hasten over; to cause to pass away lightly, or in mirth and joy.Examples: "They say he is already in the Forest of Arden, and a many merry men with him; and there they live like the old Robin Hood of England. They say many young gentlemen flock to him every day and fleet the time carelessly, as they did in the golden world."; "And so through this dark world they fleet / Divided, till in death they meet."ambitransitive

4. (intransitive) To flee, to escape, to speed away.Examples: "Gratiano:O, be thou damn'd, inexecrable dog! And for thy life let justice be accused. Thou almost makest me waver in my faith, To hold opinion with Pythagoras, That souls of animals infuse themselves Into the trunks of men: thy currish spirit Govern'd a wolf, who, hang'd for human slaughter, Even from the gallows did his fell soul fleet, And, whilst thou lay'st in thy unhallow'd dam, Infused itself in thee; for thy desires Are wolfish, bloody, starved, and ravenous."; "It began to be chill; the tide was rapidly fleeting seaward, the schooner settling more and more on her beam-ends."intransitive

5. (intransitive) To evanesce, disappear, die out.Examples: "Portia:How all other passions fleet to air, As doubtful thoughts, and rash-embraced despair, And shuddering fear, and green-eyed jealousy! O love, be moderate; allay thy ecstasy; In measure rain thy joy; scant this excess! I feel too much thy blessing; make it less, For fear I surfeit!"intransitive

6. (nautical) To move up a rope, so as to haul to more advantage; especially to draw apart the blocks of a tackle.Examples: "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."

1. (literary) Swift in motion; light and quick in going from place to place.Examples: "In mail their horses clad, yet fleet and strong."; "[…]it was not till the afternoon that they came out on the high-road, their first high-road; and there disaster, fleet and unforeseen, sprang out on them — disaster momentous indeed to their expedition[…]"; "Aye, the Chicopee, a fine-un, she were. Clean built and trig-lookin’! None more fleet in ‘64 than she..."Synonyms: nimble, fastliterary

2. (uncommon) Light; superficially thin; not penetrating deep, as soil.Examples: "fleet Soil, and that 'tis mixed with a great quantity of Earth, Marle, Mud or Clay, &c."uncommon

1. (Yorkshire) Obsolete form of flet (“house, floor, large room”).Examples: "Fire and fleet and candle-lighte"Yorkshirealt-ofobsolete