Definition of ship

What does the word ship mean?

• part of speech: verb transitive, intransitive

  Put, take, or send away, (goods, passengers, sailors) on board s.; (Commerc.) deliver (goods) to forwarding agent for conveyance by land or water; fix (mast, rudder, &c.) in its place on s. (s. oars, take from rowlocks& lay inside boat); (of s. or boat) s. a sea, be flooded by wave; take s., embark, (of sailor) take service on s.

• part of speech: noun

  (regarded as fem., w. pron. she, her). Vessel with bowsprit& three, four, or five square-rigged masts (cf. BARQUE, BRIG, SCHOONER, SLOOP); any sea-going vessel of considerable size (BATTLE -s., s. of the LINE, MERCHANT s., SAILING s., WAR -s.; sister s., built on same plan as another; ABOUT s.; PUMP-s.; take s., embark; on BOARD s.); on shipboard, on board s.; s.-biscuit, hard coarse kind made for keeping used on board s.; s.-breaker, contractor who breaks up old ss.; s.-broker, agent transacting s.\'s business in port, dealer in ss., marine-insurance agent; s.-builder,-building; s.-canal, for conveying ss. inland; s.-CHANDLER (y); s.-fever, typhus; s.-letter, conveyed by other than mail-s.; shipload, quantity of something forming whole cargo; shipmate, person belonging to or sailing on same s. as another, esp. fellow sailor; s.-money hist., impost for providing ss. for navy, revival of which by Charles I was a cause of Great Rebellion; shipowner, person owning (shares in) ship (s); s.-railway, for transportation of ss. overland from water to water; s.-rigged, as s. in first sense; s.\'s COMPANY; s.\'s CORPORAL; shipshape adv. or pred. a., in good order, well arranged; s.\'s-husband, s.-broker in first sense; s.\'s papers, documents establishing ownership, nationality, nature of cargo, &c., of s.; s.-way, inclined structure on which s. is built& down which it slides to be launched; s.-worm, mollusc boring into s. timbers; shipwreck n., destruction of s. by storm, foundering, stranding, striking rock, &c., (fig.) ruin (make shipwreck, be ruined; make or suffer shipwreck of one\'s hopes &c.); shipwreck v.t. & i., inflict s.-w. lit. or fig. on (person, hopes, &c., rarely ship), suffer s.-w.; s.-wright, s.-builder; s.-yard, s.-building establishment. Hence shipless a. [old English]

• part of speech: noun

  s. of the desert, camel; s.\'s articles, the terms on which seamen take service; when my &c. s. comes home, when I &c. make my fortune or can afford what I want.