sea-fightn.
A naval battle, a fight or engagement between ships at sea.
ΘΚΠ
society > armed hostility > hostilities at sea > naval battle > [noun]
sea battle1598
sea-fight1600
society > armed hostility > armed encounter > [noun] > battle or a battle > naval battle
sea-fight1600
close battle1850
1600 E. Blount tr. G. F. di Conestaggio Hist. Uniting Portugall to Castill 292 Behold the issue of the sea fight.
a1616 W. Shakespeare Twelfth Night (1623) iii. iii. 26.
1625 F. Bacon Ess. (new ed.) 183 There be many Examples, where Sea-Fights haue beene Finall to the warre.
1690 J. Evelyn Diary (1955) V. 11 He concluded there would shortly be no other method of sea fight.
c1700 in H. Walpole Vertue's Anecd. Painting (1765) III. i. 56 Mr. William Vandevelde, senior, late painter of sea-fights to their majesties king Charles II. and king James dyed 1693.
1842 W. C. Taylor Student's Man. Anc. Hist. (ed. 3) ix. §5. 241 The naval engagement between the Corcyrians and Corinthians ( b.c. 650) is the first sea~fight recorded in history.
1858 H. W. Longfellow My Lost Youth v I remember the sea-fight far away, How it thundered o'er the tide!
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1911; most recently modified version published online June 2020).
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