Definition of "fleet" []

• A number of warships operating together under one command. (noun)
• A group of vessels or vehicles, such as taxicabs or fishing boats, owned or operated as a unit. (noun)
• Moving swiftly; rapid or nimble. See Synonyms at fast1. (adjective)
• Fleeting; evanescent. (adjective)
• To move or pass swiftly. (verb-intransitive)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "If well executed _it would cause the evacuation of all these formidable fortifications_ upon which the rebels ground their hopes for success; and in the event of our fleet attacking Mobile, the presence of our troops in the northern part of Alabama _would be material aid to the fleet_."
• "The great herring fleet outside the harbor was as motionless as "a painted _fleet_ upon a painted ocean" -- the men were sleeping or smoking upon the piers -- not a foot fell upon the flagged streets, and the only murmur of sound was round the public fountains, where a few women were perched on the bowl's edge, knitting and gossiping."
• "'To the castles about Deal, where _our_ fleet' (_our fleet_, the saucy son of a tailor!) 'lay and anchored; great was the shoot of guns from the castles, and ships, and our answers.'"