Jump To:

• 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.

---

fleet ² American  

[fleet] / flit /

adjective

fleeter, fleetest

1. swift; rapid.

   to be fleet of foot;

   a fleet horse.

---

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.

---

fleet ¹ British  

/ fliːt /

adjective

1. rapid in movement; swift

2. poetic fleeting; transient

---

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

---

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

---

fleet ⁴ British  

/ fliːt /

noun

1. a small coastal inlet; creek

---

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

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. )

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

Also, this specimen, borrowed from the Ducati North America’s press fleet, was a rolling showroom of touring/overlanding accessories, notably the two aluminum cargo boxes mounted pannier-style.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 29, 2026

The operation comes after Royal Marine Commandos boarded a Russian "shadow fleet" oil tanker in the English Channel in June.

From BBC ● Aug. 29, 2026

A Bloomberg analysis suggests the nuclear push comes too late to stop China’s nuclear capacity from overtaking the U.S. fleet at the start of the next decade.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 28, 2026

That investment would allow Qantas to start retiring its double-decker A380 fleet from 2028, she said.

From Barron's ● Aug. 27, 2026

I went racing after Tina, but she is fleet.

From "How It Went Down" by Kekla Magoon

Fleet operators acknowledged that some drivers have been apprehensive to make the leap to zero-emission trucks because the technology is new and charging can be a challenge.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 27, 2026

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

From Slate ● Aug. 19, 2026

Pacific Fleet, serves as the top official overseeing Rimpac.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 1, 2026

Fleet sales were also strong, supported by robust demand from commercial and government customers.

From Barron's ● Jul. 21, 2026

His father was old now, and so too his uncle Victarion, who commanded the Iron Fleet.

From "A Clash of Kings" by George R.R. Martin

“Drive My Car” is a three-hour drama that seems lighter and fleeter than some two-hour ones.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 27, 2022

Some tempos, freshly rethought, were fleeter than you usually hear; other passages were nobly expansive.

From New York Times ● Aug. 2, 2015

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

He is just about the fastest marathoner alive, and so much faster than everyone else in the race, even if this marathon does not necessarily favor the fleetest in the field.

From New York Times ● Nov. 5, 2021

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

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

From Reuters ● Oct. 16, 2015

Thirty-four of the planet’s fleetest of foot - 20 men and 14 women from the United States and eight other countries - are in the hunt.

From Washington Times ● Apr. 19, 2015

Now that they were in the open field it was a race that would go to the fleetest.

From The Meadow-Brook Girls Across Country The Young Pathfinders on a Summer Hike by Janet Aldridge

He oversees the rapid construction of a powerful naval force and confronts the combined fleets of Antony and Cleopatra, the queen of Egypt, at the Battle of Actium in 31 B.C.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 28, 2026

Kodiak’s “virtual driver” system, which is designed to be integrated across fleets, logged more than 40,000 paid driverless hours across 35 trucks during the second quarter.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 25, 2026

Years of market turmoil, federal funding cuts, canceled projects and industry pullback have made it clear: California’s grand vision for fleets of vehicles and heavy industry running on clean hydrogen fuel has stalled.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 17, 2026

In the southern city of Yangsan, where the mercury hit a historic high of 42.5C on Sunday, fleets of sprinkler trucks have been roaming the streets, spraying water onto sun-baked roads.

From BBC ● Aug. 7, 2026

That way, when you saw a tire track in the dirt, you knew instantly if it belonged to the great fleets of Kamkwamba Toyota, for instance, or Gilbert Company LTD.

From "The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind" by William Kamkwamba

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

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

The old word for float: as "we fleeted down the river with our boats;" and Shakspeare makes Antony say, "Our sever'd navy too Have knit again, and fleet, threat'ning most sea-like."

From The Sailor's Word-Book An Alphabetical Digest of Nautical Terms, including Some More Especially Military and Scientific, but Useful to Seamen; as well as Archaisms of Early Voyagers, etc. by Sir Edward Belcher

And so the vision fleeted, and Byfield’s language claimed attention.

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

"Even as I stood with raptured eye, Absorbed in bliss so deep and dear, My hour of rest had fleeted by, And back came labour, bondage, care."

From Emily Brontë by A. Mary F. (Agnes Mary Frances) Robinson

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

Once the fear wears off and the road becomes home, the group develops its own rituals and routines, but maintains its connection to what came before all this, however fleeting it may be.

From Salon ● Aug. 24, 2026

Researchers in Japan have captured an extraordinarily fast electronic transformation inside a metal-organic framework, observing a fleeting state and the hidden state that followed within just 30 femtoseconds.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 21, 2026

Meyers proceeds to tell an astonished Ed that he’s a huge fan of his long-forgotten 1979 poetry collection entitled “Way Past Go,” the postal worker’s fleeting brush with literary success.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 14, 2026

“History has repeatedly shown that the sales impact of foodborne illness tends to be fleeting for restaurants,” one analyst noted.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 6, 2026

Mama hadn’t cried the day Baba had died, but Koffi still remembered the fleeting look that’d crossed her face.

From "Beasts of Prey" by Ayana Gray

Related Words

• armada
• flotilla
• navy
• squadron