corvette
[kawr-vet]
- a warship of the old sailing class, having a flush deck and usually one tier of guns.
- a lightly armed, fast ship used mostly for convoy escort and ranging in size between a destroyer and a gunboat.
Also cor·vet [kawr-vet, kawr-vet] /kɔrˈvɛt, ˈkɔr vɛt/.
Origin of corvette
1630–40; < French, Middle French < Middle Dutch corver pursuit boat (derivative of corf fishing boat, literally, basket), with suffix altered to -ette -ette
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for corvette
Contemporary Examples
Soon came whispers about a Russian corvette being spotted at Balaclava Bay.
Martinez is currently working on scoring a commercial for the 2014 Corvette.
Cliff Martinez’s Journey From Red Hot Chili Peppers to Composer of ‘Drive’ and ‘Spring Breakers’Marlow Stern
March 21, 2013
When I drive my Corvette I see the looks it gets from all the people that have children.
In 1983, August Busch IV, then a 19-year-old student at the University of Arizona in 1983, crashed his Corvette.
He even got his Corvette back, albeit several months after the raid and, he says, with the tires worn down.
Historical Examples
When my brother was here in the corvette, he found her for me.
MalboneThomas Wentworth Higginson
If you like you can return to Lisbon in the corvette; you will be there before us.'
The Memoires of Casanova, CompleteJacques Casanova de Seingalt
The document was an order to take the acting command of the corvette.
The Grateful IndianW.H.G. Kingston
He hoped to do something before the corvette had to return home.
The Grateful IndianW.H.G. Kingston
The latter began firing as soon as her guns could reach the corvette.
The Grateful IndianW.H.G. Kingston
corvette
- a lightly armed escort warship
Word Origin
C17: from Old French, perhaps from Middle Dutch corf basket, small ship, from Latin corbis basket
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for corvette
n.
1630s, also corvet, from French corvette "small, fast frigate" (15c.), perhaps from Middle Dutch korver "pursuit ship," or Middle Low German korf meaning both a kind of boat and a basket, or from Latin corbita (navis) "slow-sailing ship of burden, grain ship" from corbis "basket" (Gamillscheg is against this). The U.S. sports car was so named September 1952, after the warship, on a suggestion by Myron Scott, employee of Campbell-Ewald, Chevrolet's advertising agency. Italian corvetta, Spanish corbeta are French loan-words.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper