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Fleet vs Veer - What's the difference?

fleet | veer |

As a proper noun fleet

is the stream that ran where fleet street now runs.

As a verb veer is

(obsolete|nautical) to let out (a sail-line), to allow (a sheet) to run out or veer can be to change direction or course suddenly; to swerve.

As a noun veer is

a turn or swerve; an instance of veering.

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)

    veer

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) .

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (obsolete, nautical) To let out (a sail-line), to allow (a sheet) to run out.
  • *1596 , (Edmund Spenser), The Faerie Queene , volume 12:
  • *:As when a skilfull Marriner doth reed / A storme approching, that doth perill threat, / He will not bide the daunger of such dread, / But strikes his sayles, and vereth his mainsheat, / And lends vnto it leaue the emptie ayre to beat.
  • Etymology 2

    From (etyl) virer.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A turn or swerve; an instance of veering.
  • Verb

    (en verb)
  • To change direction or course suddenly; to swerve.
  • The car slid on the ice and veered out of control.
  • * (rfdate), Dryden:
  • And as he leads, the following navy veers .
  • * (rfdate), Burke:
  • An ordinary community which is hostile or friendly as passion or as interest may veer about.
  • * {{quote-news, year=2012, date=November 7, author=Matt Bai, title=Winning a Second Term, Obama Will Confront Familiar Headwinds, work=New York Times citation
  • , passage=At this time in 2008, even as the global economy veered toward collapse, optimism about Washington ran surprisingly high.}}
  • (of the wind) To shift in a clockwise direction (if in the Northern Hemisphere, or in a counterclockwise direction if in the Southern Hemisphere).Bowditch 2002
  • (intransitive, nautical, of the wind) To shift aft.
  • (nautical) To change direction into the wind; to ship.
  • To turn.
  • Antonyms
    * back * haul forward

    References

    Anagrams

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