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

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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

I fancy the xebec is the fastest, sir.

From Held Fast For England A Tale of the Siege of Gibraltar (1779-83) by G. A. (George Alfred) Henty

While it lasted, no boat could push out from the xebec without our perceiving it.

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

The small cannon of the xebec had been dismounted, but they hastily tied them with ropes.

From The Dead Command From the Spanish Los Muertos Mandan by Frances Douglas

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

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