razee

American  

[rey-zee] / reɪˈzi /

noun

1. a ship, especially a warship, reduced in height by the removal of the upper deck.

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verb (used with object)

razeed, razeeing

1. to cut down (a wooden ship) by removing the upper deck.

razee British  

/ ˈræziː /

noun

1. a sailing ship that has had its upper deck or decks removed

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verb

1. to remove the upper deck or decks of (a sailing ship)

Etymology

Origin of razee

1785–95; < French ( vaisseau ) rasé razed (ship), past participle of raser to raze

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

razee razeed

Of course America had no means of raising a blockade, as each squadron contained generally a 74 or a razee, vessels too heavy for any in our navy to cope with.

From The Naval War of 1812 Or the History of the United States Navy during the Last War with Great Britain to Which Is Appended an Account of the Battle of New Orleans by Theodore Roosevelt

"We'll bring him back, boys, if we have ter go ter Virginny City an' razee the town," said Missoo.

From Golden Days for Boys and Girls, Vol. XIII, Nov. 28, 1891 by James Elverson

A breeze sprang up by noon, and the two nearest vessels of the fleet, a thirty-eight-gun frigate, and a razee of fifty, slipped their moorings and came down before it.

From Yankee Ships and Yankee Sailors: Tales of 1812 by James Barnes

The Endymion would never have engaged the frigate President, but knowing herself backed by three frigates and a razee, who, though somewhat slower sailors, would get up before she could be taken.

From Memoir, Correspondence, And Miscellanies, From The Papers Of Thomas Jefferson, Volume 4 by Thomas Jefferson Randolph

Twice a 74 captured or destroyed two frigates, and a razee performed a similar feat.

From The Naval War of 1812 Or the History of the United States Navy during the Last War with Great Britain to Which Is Appended an Account of the Battle of New Orleans by Theodore Roosevelt

It is well, perhaps, that Gen. Lee has razeed the department down to a second-class bureau, of which the President himself is the chief.

From A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital by John Beauchamp Jones

The English Royal Sovereign, 3,765 tons and 330 feet length, and the Prince Albert, 2,529 tons and the same length, are razeed wooden vessels.

From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 11, No. 63, January, 1863 by Various

It is English, Tom, only the old gentleman razeed it a little.

From Jacob Faithful by Frederick Marryat

It’s Ephraim Brown—very ginerally razeed down to Eph by my friends—and I’m master and owner of this here schooner, named a’ter my old woman away back to Baltimore.

From Turned Adrift by Edward S. Hodgson

She was built upon the razeed hull of the old "Merrimac," of four-and-a-half-inch iron, transverse plates; and carried an armament of seven-inch rifled Brooke guns, made expressly for her.

From Four Years in Rebel Capitals An Inside View of Life in the Southern Confederacy from Birth to Death by T. C. DeLeon