xebec

American  

[zee-bek] / ˈzi bɛk /

Also zebeck.

noun

1. a small, three-masted vessel of the Mediterranean, formerly much used by corsairs, now employed to some extent in commerce.

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xebec British  

/ ˈziːbɛk /

noun

1. a small three-masted Mediterranean vessel with both square and lateen sails, formerly used by Algerian pirates and later used for commerce

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Etymology

Origin of xebec

1750–60; alteration of earlier chebec < French < Catalan xabec or Spanish xabeque (now jabeque ), both < Arabic shabbāk

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

xebec

By page 300 Haiti is left far behind; Albion and Lydia languish as prisoners aboard a Tripolitan xebec manned by ruffians in green turbans, and Lear has become U.S.

From Time Magazine Archive

Mistico, mis′ti-kō, n. a small Mediterranean coaster, between a xebec and a felucca.

From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 2 of 4: E-M) by Various

The boat took in a dozen or so, and then, being dangerously overcrowded, left the rest to their fate, and headed back for the xebec.

From Sir John Constantine Memoirs of His Adventures At Home and Abroad and Particularly in the Island of Corsica: Beginning with the Year 1756 by Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch

And some may sing of the galley-foist, and some of the quadrireme, And some of the day the xebec came and hit us abaft the beam.

From Something Else Again by Franklin P. (Franklin Pierce) Adams

Decatur spoke as if he meant what he said, and the officers of the xebec did not want to lose their ears.

From Stories of Our Naval Heroes Every Child Can Read by Jesse Lyman Hurlbut