fleet

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
fleet1

▶noun

• 1 a group of ships sailing together or under the same ownership.

  ■ (the fleet) a country's navy: the US fleet.

• 2 a number of vehicles or aircraft operating together.

– origin OE flēot ‘ship, shipping’, from flēotan (see fleet5).

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
fleet2

▶adjective fast and nimble: fleet of foot.

– derivatives
fleetly adverb,
fleetness noun.

– origin C16: prob. from ON fljótr, of Gmc origin and rel. to fleet5.

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
fleet3

▶noun dialect a marshland creek, channel, or ditch.

– origin OE flēot, of Gmc origin; rel. to fleet5.

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
fleet4 dialect

▶adjective (of water) shallow. ▶adverb at or to a small depth.

– origin C17: perh. based on an OE cognate of Du. vloot ‘shallow’ and rel. to fleet5.

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
fleet5

▶verb literary move or pass quickly.

– origin OE flēotan ‘float, swim’, of Gmc origin; rel. to flit and float.