different between fleet vs escadrille

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /fli?t/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /flit/
• Rhymes: -i?t

Etymology 1

From Middle English flete, flet (“fleet”), from Old English fl?ot (“ship”), likely related to Proto-Germanic *flut?n? (“to float”).

Noun

fleet (plural fleets)

1. A group of vessels or vehicles.
2. Any group of associated items.
   • 2004, Jim Hoskins, Building an on Demand Computing Environment with IBM:

     This is especially true in distributed printing environments, where a fleet of printers is shared by users on a network.

3. A large, coordinated group of people.
4. (nautical) A number of vessels in company, especially war vessels; also, the collective naval force of a country, etc.
5. (nautical, British Royal Navy) Any command of vessels exceeding a squadron in size, or a rear admiral's command, composed of five sail-of-the-line, with any number of smaller vessels.

Alternative forms

• fleete (obsolete)

Derived terms

• fleet in being
• merchant fleet

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English flete, flete (“bay, gulf”), from Old English fl?ot (“a bay, gulf, an arm of the sea, estuary, the mouth of a river”). Cognate with Dutch vliet (“stream, river, creek, inlet”), German Fleet (“watercourse, canal”).

Noun

fleet (plural fleets)

1. (obsolete, dialectal) An arm of the sea; a run of water, such as an inlet or a creek.
   • 1723, John Lewis, The History and Antiquities, Ecclesiastical and Civil, of the Isle of Tenet in Kent

     a certain Flete [...] through which little Boats used to come to the aforesaid Town

   • 1628, A. Matthewes (translator), Aminta (originally by Torquato Tasso)

     Together wove we nets to entrap the fish / In floods and sedgy fleets.

2. (nautical) A location, as on a navigable river, where barges are secured.

Derived terms

Etymology 3

From Middle English fleten (“float”), from Old English fl?otan (“float”), from Proto-Germanic *fleutan?.

Verb

fleet (third-person singular simple present fleets, present participle fleeting, simple past and past participle fleeted)

1. (obsolete, intransitive) To float.
   • c. 1606-07, William Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra, Act III scene xi^[2]:

     Antony: Our force by land / Hath nobly held; our sever'd navy too, / Have knit again, and fleet, threat'ning most sea-like.

2. (transitive) To pass over rapidly; to skim the surface of.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Spenser to this entry?)

3. (transitive, intransitive) To hasten over; to cause to pass away lightly, or in mirth and joy.
   • c. 1599, William Shakespeare, As You Like It, Act I scene i^[3]:

     They say he is already in the Forest of Arden, and a many merry men with him; and there they live like the old Robin Hood of England. They say many young gentlemen flock to him every day and fleet the time carelessly, as they did in the golden world.

   • 1817-18, Percy Shelley, Rosalind and Helen, lines 626-627:

     And so through this dark world they fleet / Divided, till in death they meet.

4. (intransitive) To flee, to escape, to speed away.
   • c. 1596-97, William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice, Act IV scene i^[4]:

     Gratiano:

     O, be thou damn'd, inexecrable dog!

     And for thy life let justice be accused.

     Thou almost makest me waver in my faith,

     To hold opinion with Pythagoras,

     That souls of animals infuse themselves

     Into the trunks of men: thy currish spirit

     Govern'd a wolf, who, hang'd for human slaughter,

     Even from the gallows did his fell soul fleet,

     And, whilst thou lay'st in thy unhallow'd dam,

     Infused itself in thee; for thy desires

     Are wolfish, bloody, starved, and ravenous.

5. (intransitive) To evanesce, disappear, die out.
   • c. 1596-97, William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice, Act III scene ii:

     Portia:

     How all other passions fleet to air,

     As doubtful thoughts, and rash-embraced despair,

     And shuddering fear, and green-eyed jealousy!

     O love, be moderate; allay thy ecstasy;

     In measure rain thy joy; scant this excess!

     I feel too much thy blessing; make it less,

     For fear I surfeit!

6. (nautical) To move up a rope, so as to haul to more advantage; especially to draw apart the blocks of a tackle.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Totten to this entry?)

7. (nautical, intransitive, of people) To move or change in position.
   • 1898, Frank T. Bullen, The Cruise of the "Cachalot"

     We got the long "stick" [...] down and "fleeted" aft, where it was secured.

8. (nautical, obsolete) To shift the position of dead-eyes when the shrouds are become too long.
9. To cause to slip down the barrel of a capstan or windlass, as a rope or chain.
10. To take the cream from; to skim.

Translations

Adjective

fleet (comparative fleeter or more fleet, superlative fleetest or most fleet)

1. (literary) Swift in motion; light and quick in going from place to place.

   Synonyms: nimble, fast

   • 1908, Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows:

     [...]it was not till the afternoon that they came out on the high-road, their first high-road; and there disaster, fleet and unforeseen, sprang out on them — disaster momentous indeed to their expedition[...]

2. (uncommon) Light; superficially thin; not penetrating deep, as soil.

Derived terms

• fleetfoot
• fleetfooted

Translations

Etymology 4

See flet.

Noun

fleet (plural fleets)

1. (Yorkshire) Obsolete form of flet (“house, floor, large room”).
   • 1686, "Lyke Wake Dirge" as printed in The Oxford Book of English Verse (1900) p. 361:

     Fire and fleet and candle-lighte

Anagrams

• felte, lefte

Middle English

Noun

fleet

1. Alternative form of flete (“bay”)

English

Etymology

Borrowed from French escadrille, from Middle French, from Spanish escuadrilla, from Latin exquadrare (“to square off”).

Noun

escadrille (plural escadrilles)

1. A small squadron.
2. (historical, military) A unit of (usually) ten or more aircraft in World War I France.

See also

• Wikipedia article on the Lafayette Escadrille

Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from French escadrille.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??s.ka??dri.j?/
• Hyphenation: es?ca?dril?le

Noun

escadrille f or n (plural escadrilles)

1. escadrille, small squadron; especially of aeroplanes

Related terms

• eskader

French

Etymology

From Spanish escuadrilla.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?s.ka.d?ij/

Noun

escadrille f (plural escadrilles)

1. squadron (of airplanes)
2. flotilla

Descendants

• ? Danish: eskadrille
• ? Dutch: escadrille
• ? English: escadrille

Further reading

• “escadrille” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).