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

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

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 Hurlbut, Jesse Lyman

Now there was a Spanish warship lying in the port, of the kind called a xebec, a sort of three-masted vessel common in the Mediterranean Sea.

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

Stephen Decatur, was brought under the guns of the xebec, and held there while the Spaniards shouted insults from the deck above.

From The Naval History of the United States Volume 1 by Abbot, Willis J. (Willis John)

S in was; c in suffice; and x in xebec.

From 1001 Questions and Answers on Orthography and Reading by Hathaway, B. A.