noun.
An arm of the sea; an inlet; a river or creek: now used only as an element in place-names: as, Northfleet, Southfleet, Fleetditch.
Swift of motion; moving or able to move with rapidity; rapid.
noun.
A number of ships or other vessels, in company, under the same command, or employed in the same service, particularly in war or in fishing: as, a fleet of men-of-war, or of war-canoes; the fishing-fleet on the Banks; the fleet of a steamship company.
noun.
Specifically, a number of vessels of war organized for offense or defense under one commander, with subordinate commanders of single vessels and sometimes of squadrons; a naval armament.
noun.
In fishing, a single line of 100 hooks: so called when the bultow was introduced in Newfoundland (1846).
To skim, as cream from milk.
Nautical, to skim up fresh water from the surface of (the sea), as practised at the mouth of the Rhone, of the Nile, etc.
Light; superficially fruitful; thin; not penetrating deep, as soil.
In a manner so as to affect only the surface; superficially.
noun.
A dialectal (Scotch) variant of flute.
To float.
To swim.
To sail; navigate.
To flow; run, as water; flow away.
To overflow; abound.
To gutter, as a candle.
To fly swiftly; flit, as a light substance; pass away quickly.
Nautical, to change place: said of men at work: as, to fleet forward or aft in a boat.
To fly swiftly over; skim over the surface of: as, a ship that fleets the gulf.
To cause to pass swiftly or lightly.
Nautical, to change the position of: as, to fleet a tackle (to change its position after the blocks are drawn together so as to use it again); to fleet the men aft (to order men to move further aft).
Skimmed; skim: applied to skim-milk or to cheese made from it: as, fleet milk, fleet cheese.