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hospital ship

American

noun

a ship built to serve as a hospital, especially used to treat the wounded in wartime and accorded safe passage by international law.

Etymology

Origin of hospital ship

First recorded in 1675–85

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.

Denmark and Greenland in February rejected Trump's offer to send a naval hospital ship "to take care of the many people who are sick, and not being taken care of there".

From Barron's • May 20, 2026

Trump announced in February that he was sending a US hospital ship to Greenland, an offer flatly rejected by Greenland's leader.

From BBC • May 20, 2026

The order, accompanied by an AI-generated illustration of a World War II-era hospital ship flying the U.S. flag, was confusing to many, and justifiably so.

From Salon • Feb. 28, 2026

A U.S. hospital ship off the coast of Nuuk could present both Greenland and the U.S. with some tricky issues, Pedersen said.

From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 24, 2026

Some of the men on the hospital ship with me didn’t have any visible wounds, but were badly hurt.

From "Code Talker: A Novel About the Navajo Marines of World War Two" by Joseph Bruchac

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023