warship
Americannoun
-
warships
plural
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of warship
Explanation
A warship is a military sea vessel that's usually armed with weapons. A country's navy uses warships in battles or to transport troops. A battleship is one specific kind of warship, a very large one that's outfitted with weapons and heavily defended against attack. All warships are prepared for war (which is where they get their name), and most of them are controlled by the naval forces of a nation. Many countries move their warships into particular regions to exert political force on adversaries, or send them to protect civilian or cargo ships from pirate attacks.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
This has led to unusual discoveries on the river bed, including the bones of a mammoth in Bulgaria and a sunken WW2 warship in Serbia.
From BBC ● Aug. 15, 2026
The Russian frigate, Neustrashimy, was also being monitored by a French military aircraft which made radio contact with the warship asking it to clarify its intentions, the BBC has been told.
From BBC ● Jul. 20, 2026
Germany on Wednesday pulled the plug on its largest naval order in decades after the anti-submarine warship project suffered delays, a setback for the country's ambitions to overhaul its military.
From Barron's ● Jun. 24, 2026
The defense giant tumbled close to 12% on a report that the German government is pulling funding for a new warship.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 24, 2026
Then he had returned to Camp Jupiter with his new girlfriend Piper and a whole bunch of Greek friends in a warship.
From "The House of Hades" by Rick Riordan
Last month, Chinese and Russian naval warships sailed through a strait in the Kuril islands during a joint patrol.
From BBC ● Aug. 13, 2026
While the U.S. denies Iran has control of the strait, it has only occasionally risked sending warships into the Persian Gulf during the conflict, and then only for brief missions.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 8, 2026
This includes Britain's Dreadnought programme, which is building the Royal Navy's next-generation nuclear deterrent submarines, and the Type 26 frigate programme, which is developing a fleet of advanced anti-submarine warships.
From BBC ● Aug. 7, 2026
Rescuers with backup from two Indonesian warships and a navy surveillance aircraft were searching for survivors even as estimates of the number of missing people kept changing.
From Barron's ● Aug. 3, 2026
But McLane also failed because, at the last minute, British warships unexpectedly appeared.
From "George Washington, Spymaster" by Thomas B. Allen
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
