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Crew vs Fleet - What's the difference?

crew | fleet |

In obsolete terms the difference between crew and fleet

is that crew is any company of people; an assemblage; a throng while fleet is to float.

In nautical terms the difference between crew and fleet

is that crew is to take on, recruit (new) crew while fleet is to move up a rope, so as to haul to more advantage; especially to draw apart the blocks of a tackle.

As nouns the difference between crew and fleet

is that crew is a group of people (often staff) manning and operating a large facility or piece of equipment such as a factory, ship, boat, or airplane while fleet is a group of vessels or vehicles.

As verbs the difference between crew and fleet

is that crew is to be a member of a vessel's crew while fleet is to float.

As an adjective fleet is

swift in motion; moving with velocity; light and quick in going from place to place; nimble; fast.

As a proper noun Fleet is

the stream that ran where Fleet Street now runs.

crew

English

Etymology 1

from (etyl), from (etyl)

Noun

(en noun)
  • A group of people (often staff) manning and operating a large facility or piece of equipment such as a factory, ship, boat, or airplane
  • If you need help, please contact a member of the crew .
    The crews of the two ships got into a fight.
  • A member of the crew of a vessel or plant
  • One crew died in the accident.
  • (obsolete) Any company of people; an assemblage; a throng.
  • * Spenser
  • There a noble crew / Of lords and ladies stood on every side.
  • * Milton
  • Faithful to whom? to thy rebellious crew ?
  • A member of a ship's company who is not an officer
  • The officers and crew assembled on the deck.
    ''There are quarters for three officers and five crew .
  • (arts) The group of workers on a dramatic production who are not part of the cast
  • There are a lot of carpenters in the crew !
    The crews for different movies would all come down to the bar at night.
  • A worker on a dramatic production who is not part of the cast
  • There were three actors and six crew on the set.
  • A group of people working together on a task
  • The crews competed to cut the most timber.
  • A close group of friends
  • I'd look out for that whole crew down at Jack's.
  • A set of individuals lumped together by the speaker
  • * 1861 William Weston Patton, (version of) John Brown's Body
  • He captured Harper’s Ferry, with his nineteen men so few,
    And frightened "Old Virginny" till she trembled thru and thru;
    They hung him for a traitor, they themselves the traitor crew ,
    But his soul is marching on.
  • * {{quote-book, 1950, Bernard Nicholas Schilling, Conservative England and the Case Against Voltaire, page=266 citation
  • , passage=Malignant principles bear fruit in kind and the Revolution did no more than practice what men had been taught by the abandoned crew of philosophers. }}
  • (slang, hip-hop) A hip-hop group
  • * {{quote-book, 2003, Jennifer Guglielmo & Salvatore Salerno, Are Italians White?, page=150 citation
  • , passage=We decided we needed another rapper in the crew and spent months looking.}}
  • (sports, rowing, uncountable) The sport of competitive rowing.
  • * {{quote-book, 1989, & Mary Morgan, Spock on Spock citation
  • , passage=Two Andover classmates, Al Wilson and Al Lindley, both went out for crew in our freshman year at Yale.}}
  • (rowing) A rowing team manning a single shell.
  • * {{quote-book, 1888, , Boating citation
  • , passage=If a crew feather much under water, it is a good plan to seat them in a row on a bench, and give each man a stick to handle as an oar.}} Image:STS-87_crew_1.jpg, Crew of a spaceship Image:Toronto female rowing team.jpg, Crew of a rowing shell Image:ScottKalittaDragsterPits.jpg, Crew working on a race car Image:Daara J.jpg, A hip-hop crew
    Synonyms
    * (group manning a vessel) ship's company, all hands, complement * (member of a crew) crewer, member; nautical only : sailor, seaman * (non-officer ship worker) seaman * (non-cast dramatic personnel) staff, stagehand * (group engaged in a task) team, gang * (social group) clique, gang, pack, crowd, bunch, lot (UK); posse * (group lumped together) crowd, flock, lot, gang * (hip-hop group) posse, band, group
    Derived terms
    * crew cut * crewless * crewman * crew mate * ground crew/groundcrew * motley crew * skeleton crew

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To be a member of a vessel's crew
  • We crewed together on a fishing boat last year.
    The ship was crewed by fifty sailors.
  • To be a member of a work or production crew
  • The film was crewed and directed by students.
  • To supply workers or sailors for a crew
  • * {{quote-book, 2003, Kirk C. Jenkins, The Battle Rages Higher, isbn=0813122813, page=42 citation
  • , passage= Steele crewed the boat with men from his own regiment and volunteers from John Wood's detachment.}}
  • (nautical) To do the proper work of a sailor
  • The crewing of the vessel before the crash was deficient.
  • (nautical) To take on, recruit (new) crew
  • * {{quote-news, 1967, January, , Tampa, The Pilot, page=30 citation
  • , passage=The two ships will be crewing in the latter half of September.}}
    Derived terms
    * crewer * uncrewed * crew up

    Etymology 2

    Verb

    (head)
  • (British) (crow) To have made the characteristic sound of a rooster.
  • It was still dark when the cock crew .

    Etymology 3

    Probably of (etyl) origin.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (British, dialectal) A pen for livestock such as chickens or pigs
  • * {{quote-book, 2004, , On the Edge, page=7 citation
  • , passage=Between the shippon and the pig-crew , with the wind blowing over from the vegetable ground.}}

    Etymology 4

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • The Manx shearwater.
  • (Webster 1913)

    See also

    * *

    fleet

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A group of vessels or vehicles.
  • 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.
  • (nautical) A number of vessels in company, especially war vessels; also, the collective naval force of a country, etc.
  • (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.
  • Etymology 2

    From (etyl)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (obsolete) A flood; a creek or inlet, a bay or estuary, a river subject to the tide. cognate to Low German fleet
  • * Matthewes
  • Together wove we nets to entrap the fish / In floods and sedgy fleets .
  • (nautical) A location, as on a navigable river, where barges are secured.
  • Derived terms
    * Fleet * fleet in being * Fleet Street * merchant fleet

    Etymology 3

    From (etyl)

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (obsolete) To float.
  • [Antony] "Our sever'd navy too,
    Have knit again, and fleet, threat'ning most sea-like."'' -- Shakespeare, ''Antony and Cleopatra
  • To pass over rapidly; to skim the surface of
  • a ship that fleets the gulf
    (Spenser)
  • To hasten over; to cause to pass away lightly, or in mirth and joy
  • * Shakespeare
  • Many young gentlemen flock to him, and fleet the time carelessly.
    And so through this dark world they fleet / Divided, till in death they meet;'' -- Percy Shelley, ''Rosalind and Helen .
  • (nautical) To move up a rope, so as to haul to more advantage; especially to draw apart the blocks of a tackle.
  • (Totten)
  • (nautical, obsolete) To shift the position of dead-eyes when the shrouds are become too long.
  • To cause to slip down the barrel of a capstan or windlass, as a rope or chain.
  • To take the cream from; to skim.
  • Adjective

    (en-adj)
  • (literary) Swift in motion; moving with velocity; light and quick in going from place to place; nimble; fast.
  • * Milton
  • In mail their horses clad, yet fleet and strong.
  • * 1908:
  • (uncommon) Light; superficially thin; not penetrating deep, as soil.
  • (Mortimer)