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• fleet
  fleet

  noun

  the largest organized unit of naval ships grouped for tactical or other purposes.
• Fleet
  Fleet

  noun

  a stream that formerly ran into the Thames between Ludgate Hill and Fleet Street and is now a covered sewer

fleet

¹ American  

[fleet] / flit /

noun

1. the largest organized unit of naval ships grouped for tactical or other purposes.

2. the largest organization of warships under the command of a single officer.

3. a number of naval vessels or vessels carrying armed crew members.

4. a large group of ships, airplanes, trucks, etc., operated by a single company or under the same ownership.

   He owns a fleet of cabs.

5. a large group of airplanes, automobiles, etc., moving or operating together.

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fleet ² American  

[fleet] / flit /

adjective

fleeter, fleetest

1. swift; rapid.

   to be fleet of foot;

   a fleet horse.

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verb (used without object)

• fleets,
  present (3rd person singular)
• fleeted,
  past participle,  past
• fleeting
  present participle

1. to move swiftly; fly.

2. Nautical. to change position; shift.

3. Archaic.

   1. to glide along like a stream.

   2. to fade; vanish.

4. Obsolete. to float; drift; swim.

verb (used with object)

• fleets,
  present (3rd person singular)
• fleeted,
  past participle,  past
• fleeting
  present participle

1. to cause (time) to pass lightly or swiftly.

   Synonyms:

   beguile, hasten, speed

2. Nautical.

   1. to move or change the position of.

   2. to separate the blocks of (a tackle).

   3. to lay (a rope) along a deck.

fleet ³ American  

[fleet] / flit /

noun

British Dialect.

1. an arm of the sea; inlet.

2. a creek; stream; watercourse.

3. the Fleet, a former prison in London, long used for debtors.

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fleet ¹ British  

/ fliːt /

adjective

1. rapid in movement; swift

2. poetic fleeting; transient

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verb

1. (intr) to move rapidly

2. archaic (intr) to fade away smoothly; glide

3. (tr) nautical

   1. to change the position of (a hawser)

   2. to pass (a messenger or lead) to a hawser from a winch for hauling in

   3. to spread apart (the blocks of a tackle)

4. obsolete (intr) to float or swim

5. obsolete (tr) to cause (time) to pass rapidly

fleet ² British  

/ fliːt /

noun

1. a number of warships organized as a tactical unit

2. all the warships of a nation

3. a number of aircraft, ships, buses, etc, operating together or under the same ownership

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Fleet ³ British  

/ fliːt /

noun

1. a stream that formerly ran into the Thames between Ludgate Hill and Fleet Street and is now a covered sewer

2. Also called: Fleet Prison. (formerly) a London prison, esp used for holding debtors

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fleet ⁴ British  

/ fliːt /

noun

1. a small coastal inlet; creek

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• fleetness
  noun
• fleetly
  adverb

Inflected Forms

Participles

• fleeting
  present
• fleeted
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• fleet
  simple
• fleets
  simple
• have fleeted
  perfect
• has fleeted
  perfect
• am fleeting
  progressive
• are fleeting
  progressive
• is fleeting
  progressive
• have been fleeting
  perfect progressive
• has been fleeting
  perfect progressive

Past

• fleeted
  simple
• had fleeted
  perfect
• was fleeting
  progressive
• were fleeting
  progressive
• had been fleeting
  perfect progressive

Future

• will fleet
  simple
• will have fleeted
  perfect
• will be fleeting
  progressive
• will have been fleeting
  perfect progressive

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Etymology

Origin of fleet¹

First recorded before 1000; Middle English flete, fleot(e), Old English flēot “bay, estuary; boat,” derivative of flēotan float ( def. ); cf. fleet ²

Origin of fleet²

First recorded in 1520–30; probably from or akin to Old Norse fljótr “quick, speedy”

Origin of fleet³

First recorded before 900; Middle English flete, Old English flēot “flowing water”; cognate with German Fliess “brook”; fleet ³ def. 3 is so called after the Fleet a stream, later covered and used as a sewer, near which the prison was located; fleet ¹ ( def. )

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Explanation

A fleet is usually a large group of ships, but it can be any group of vessels like planes or cars that operate as a unit. A naval fleet is the largest formation of warships. A naval fleet at sea is like an army on land. One meaning of fleet comes from the Old English fleot, meaning “ship,” “raft,” or “floating vessel.” Although a fleet is usually a group of ships or airplanes operating under the same ownership, any group of vessels sailing together can be called a fleet, even you and your friends in a fleet of kayaks. Another meaning of fleet originates in the Old English flēotan, which means “moving swiftly.” When it’s used in that way, it’s usually in the -ing form, fleeting.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

fleet Fleet fleeter fleetest fleets fleeted fleeting

He pointed to the Stuxnet virus in 2010, which caused a series of failures in Iran's centrifuge fleet used for uranium enrichment, as a past example.

From Barron's ● Nov. 2, 2026

That means China’s fleet is around 35% larger than the American Navy by hull count.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 2, 2026

Eacon, a Hong Kong-listed company that provides software for autonomous mining trucks, says its battery-electric truck fleet in China has more than doubled this year to 1,800 vehicles, or 45% of the total fleet.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 30, 2026

Other San Diego residents have complained about sharing the city’s limited charging infrastructure with a new Waymo fleet that just launched in the region.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 30, 2026

He’d made what Charles Krauthammer described in Time magazine, somewhat facetiously, as the greatest comeback since Napoleon Bonaparte sailed a single-masted fleet from the island of Elba in 1815.

From "Endgame" by Frank Brady

Naval Support Activity Bahrain, home of the Navy’s Fifth Fleet, took heavy fire in those two weeks.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 31, 2026

Scientists now estimate that approximately 2.22 million Indigenous people lived across the continent before the arrival of the First Fleet in 1788, potentially up to seven times the number suggested by some earlier calculations.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 14, 2026

“As we enter this next chapter, our Fleet team remains committed to providing the service, expertise and support our clients have come to expect from Quixote,” the company wrote in an email.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 25, 2026

Central Command headquarters, some in the Navy’s 5th Fleet in Bahrain, some on each ship.

From Slate ● Aug. 19, 2026

Now he had a choice to make: should he risk the straits, or take the Iron Fleet around the island?

From "A Dance with Dragons" by George R. R. Martin

A new director, Warren Carlyle, has streamlined the show, shaving 20 minutes of running time through a combination of textual cuts and fleeter scenic design choices.

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 28, 2023

Email — already an old-fashioned form — isn’t really the electronic replacement of the letter but a different mode of communication entirely: fleeter, tactical, somehow both more and less disposable.

From New York Times ● Apr. 17, 2020

Something kind of similar is happening in the fleeter, more escapist Arrow and The Flash, two ongoing series on the CW based on DC Comics characters.

From Slate ● Mar. 9, 2015

Tendulkar, still fleeter of foot than some of his peers, was the man in fruitless pursuit.

From The Guardian ● Jul. 21, 2011

And open, open, swung the door,   And fleeter than the wind, The shadowy spectre swept before,   The butcher trailed behind.

From Cole's Funny Picture Book No. 1 by E. W. (Edward William) Cole

Utah also plays at the sixth-slowest pace in the league, in part because Gobert is a dominant half-court defender who isn’t the fleetest of foot end to end.

From Washington Post ● Apr. 13, 2020

Edney, the fleetest player on the team, had been doing this sort of thing since taking his talents from the home driveway to youth league games at Victoria Park gym in Carson.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 21, 2020

Calderon, whose contract runs through next season, has never been the fleetest afoot, and his defense has not aged well.

From New York Times ● Jan. 28, 2016

"I'm not the fleetest of foot but I was just fast enough to get there."

From Reuters ● Oct. 16, 2015

"Let the fleetest of our horsemen follow immediately," added the Emperor.

From The War Tiger Or, Adventures and Wonderful Fortunes of the Young Sea Chief and His Lad Chow: A Tale of the Conquest of China by William Dalton

But police forces are fighting back, and are employing increasingly sophisticated ways to tackle e-bike related crime including drones and their own fleets of e-motorbikes.

From BBC ● Nov. 2, 2026

More airlines are looking to add the SpaceX-owned satellite internet to their fleets as passengers clamor for fast and reliable wifi/

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 30, 2026

“The biggest online retailers and grocers are racing ahead, building their own delivery fleets, warehouses, membership programs, and AI shopping assistants,” the companies said in their release.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 29, 2026

Companies at the forefront of drone deliveries say they are also working to reduce the noise of their fleets.

From BBC ● Oct. 28, 2026

Hence when the latter faction gained the upper hand in a power struggle, it stopped sending fleets, eventually dismantled the shipyards, and forbade oceangoing shipping.

From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond

Another day of hiding and a night of journey had fleeted by.

From "The Return of the King" by J.R.R. Tolkien

The expression of indecision still fleeted across his face; he seemed as if weighing his thoughts in the balance, and the considerations he was revolving left him still silent.

From The House of Souls by Arthur Machen

“I had rather count on Aunt,” said Flora, with one of her rare and adorable smiles, which fleeted as it came.

From The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition Vol. 20 (of 25) by Robert Louis Stevenson

The fingers had closed upon him, and he had torn them apart, had thrust death away, had clutched life as it fleeted from him and had drawn it back to hold for the time being.

From The Snow-Burner by Henry Oyen

They made her recall Thurston, whose remembered comments fleeted through her mind, while his grave, manly image appealed to it in retrospective vision.

From An Ambitious Woman A Novel by Edgar Fawcett

This is partly why those ripped-from-the-headlines streaming documentaries are so popular: They reflect stories that are buzzy but fleeting, perfect for those whose attention spans are already shot.

From Salon ● Oct. 28, 2026

Securing the right crude for the products with the highest margins, adapting what the refinery produces, or deferring maintenance enables oil companies to capture as much of the fleeting margins as possible.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 23, 2026

By comparison, meeting with elected elites, whose fleeting power depends on the whims of the populace, reminds him all too much of his own limitations.

From Slate ● Oct. 19, 2026

Researchers must effectively capture a snapshot of that fleeting moment and use the resulting particle patterns to reconstruct the properties of the quark-gluon plasma.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 6, 2026

All the mist had come alive with these fleeting forms, dodging, flickering, fading on every side.

From "A Wizard of Earthsea" by Ursula K. Le Guin

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