Definition of "sloop of war" [sloop of war]

• A small warship carrying guns on one deck only. (noun)

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.

• "Two days later, the British sloop of war the Vulture sailed up the Hudson River into the highlands and anchored in Haverstraw Bay, four miles south of Stony Point."
• "With these orders in hand, Bingham departed Philadelphia aboard the Continental sloop of war Reprisal, armed with eighteen six-pound guns and helmed by the enterprising Captain Lambert Wickes."
• "An expedition was now fitting out to explore a north-east passage, conducted by the Honourable John Constantine Phipps, since Lord Mulgrave, in his Majesty's sloop of war the Race Horse."