a vessel, especially a large oceangoing one propelled by sails or engines.
Nautical.
a sailing vessel square-rigged on all of three or more masts, having jibs, staysails, and a spanker on the aftermost mast.
Now Rare. a bark having more than three masts.
the crew and, sometimes, the passengers of a vessel.
The captain gave shore leave to the whole ship.
an airship, airplane, or spacecraft.
to put or take on board a ship or other means of transportation; to send or transport by ship, rail, truck, plane, etc.
Nautical. to take in (water) over the side, as a vessel does when waves break over it.
to bring (an object) into a ship or boat.
to engage (someone) for service on a ship.
to fix in a ship or boat in the proper place for use.
to place (an oar) in proper position for rowing.
to send away.
They shipped the kids off to camp for the summer.
to go on board or travel by ship; embark.
to engage to serve on a ship.
to be sent or transported by ship, rail, truck, plane, etc..
Both packages shipped this morning.
to permit of being transported by any of these means.
Fresh raspberries do not ship well.
jump ship,
to escape from a ship, especially one in foreign waters or a foreign port, as to avoid further service as a sailor or to request political asylum.
to withdraw support or membership from a group, organization, cause, etc.; defect or desert.
Some of the more liberal members have jumped ship.
when one's ship comes in / home, when one's fortune is assured.
She'll buy a house when her ship comes in.
run a tight ship, to exercise a close, strict control over a ship's crew, a company, an organization, or the like.
a vessel propelled by engines or sails for navigating on the water, esp a large vessel that cannot be carried aboard another, as distinguished from a boat
nautical a large sailing vessel with three or more square-rigged masts
the crew of a ship
informal any vehicle or conveyance
when one has become successful or wealthy
to place, transport, or travel on any conveyance, esp aboard a ship
ship the microscopes by aeroplane
can we ship tomorrow?
(tr) nautical to take (water) over the side
to bring or go aboard a vessel
to ship oars
informal to send away, often in order to be rid of
they shipped the children off to boarding school
(intr) to engage to serve aboard a ship
I shipped aboard a Liverpool liner
informal (tr) to concede (a goal)
Celtic have shipped eight goals in three away matches
indicating state or condition
fellowship
indicating rank, office, or position
lordship
indicating craft or skill
horsemanship
workmanship
scholarship
What does -ship mean? The suffix -ship is used to form nouns to indicate a "state of being" or "skill." It is often used in everyday and technical terms. The suffix -ship comes from Old English -scipe, meaning “shape.” Yes, shape. Discover why at our entry for shape. The Latin-derived equivalent of -scipe is -form, from Latin -fōrmis, meaning “having the shape of.” This suffix appears in words such as fungiform and oviform. To learn more, check out our Words That Use article on -form.
First recorded before 900; Middle English, Old English noun scip, scipp; cognate with Dutch schip, German Schiff, Old Norse, Gothic skip; verb derivative of the noun
First recorded in 1995–2000; shortening of relationship
Middle English, Old English -scipe; akin to shape; cognate with dialectal Frisian, dialectal Dutch schip
A ship is a large sea-going vessel, and it's also a way to transport goods. You can ship things on a ship — but, confusingly, you can also ship them on a truck or a train. A ship is like a boat, only larger — some definitions of a sailing ship say it has at least three masts. A cruise ship transports a large number of people in what is basically a floating hotel. A cargo ship, on the other hand, transports goods being imported and exported between countries. One guess about the origin of ship links it to a Germanic word meaning "hollowed-out tree."
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
A US military ship is seen in the foreground in the Arabian Sea in April.
From BBC ● Jul. 29, 2026
A travel content creator who spent years working as a cruise ship musician, he says river cruising remains a mythic fantasy for a lot of younger travelers.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 29, 2026
Global conflict is complicating Saudi Arabia’s ability to ship its oil through its usual channels.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 29, 2026
It stood outside a brick six-flat, also fittingly painted blue, and decorated with a few stickers: “Protect Native Plants,” a rocket ship from a regional space camp, several iridescent birds.
From Salon ● Jul. 28, 2026
They snuggled together, and before the scene where Commander Calvados wins over the respect of the crew by piloting the ship through a black hole, they’d both fallen asleep.
From "Not Nothing" by Gayle Forman
The intimate relationship between the three languages is there in the very word “relationship”, a trilingualism love child, “relation” both French and Latin, -ship an Anglo-Saxon suffix.
From The Guardian ● Sep. 6, 2019
Landscape, earlier landskip, has the suffix which in English would be -ship.
From The Romance of Words (4th ed.) by Weekley, Ernest
—The termination "-ship" is the Anglo-Saxon scipe, scype, from verb scipan, to create, form; and hence as a termination of nouns denotes form, condition, office, dignity.
Line-end hyphens were retained in past participles in i-, y- and equivalent, and after the prefixes out- and to-; they were omitted before common endings such as -lich, -ship, -ness, -full.
From A Concise Dictionary of Middle English From A.D. 1150 to 1580 by Mayhew, A. L. (Anthony Lawson)
About four million barrels per day have been shipped from Yanbu in recent weeks, compared with about 973,000 a year earlier, according to data from Kpler and maritime analytics platform Signal Ocean.
From BBC ● Jul. 22, 2026
The sector now makes up 30 percent of all Mexican products shipped to the United States, overtaking the automotive industry as the largest component of exports.
From Barron's ● Jul. 21, 2026
Caution still persists among restaurant analysts, investors, customers and owners, after health officials reportedly connected the outbreak’s source to shredded iceberg lettuce shipped to Taco Bell from salad-greens producer Taylor Farms.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 18, 2026
Meta says it hasn’t yet shipped the feature to consumers and no final decision on whether to do so has been made.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 14, 2026
The dog didn’t realize Benji had screwed up everything and that Freebie would probably be shipped to the animal shelter by the end of the week.
From "Millionaires for the Month" by Stacey McAnulty
Hopes of diplomatic progress dimmed on Tuesday after Iran rejected a proposal from Oman to evenly divide control of the Strait between separate lanes for shipping.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 29, 2026
Tehran said earlier this week that it had held talks with Oman, which also borders the strait, on "common principles and operational mechanisms" to ensure the safe passage of shipping.
From Barron's ● Jul. 29, 2026
Meanwhile, oil futures prices fell further on Tuesday as investors hoped for deals that could prompt a return of Strait of Hormuz shipping.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 29, 2026
Also, Iran said on Tuesday that it rejected an Omani plan for resuming traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, presenting its own proposal that would give Tehran more control over shipping in the key waterway.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 29, 2026
The station was broadcasting vital details to Germany about New York shipping traffic.
From "The Woman All Spies Fear" by Amy Butler Greenfield
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.
