corvette

cor·vette

C0666500 (kôr-vĕt′)n.1. A fast, lightly armed warship, smaller than a destroyer, often armed for antisubmarine operations.2. An obsolete sailing warship, smaller than a frigate, usually armed with one tier of guns.

[French, a kind of warship, probably from Middle Dutch corf, basket, small ship; see corf.]

corvette

(kɔːˈvɛt) n (Military) a lightly armed escort warship[C17: from Old French, perhaps from Middle Dutch corf basket, small ship, from Latin corbis basket]

cor•vette

(kɔrˈvɛt)

also cor•vet

(kɔrˈvɛt, ˈkɔr vɛt)

n. 1. a warship of the old sailing class, having a flush deck and usu. one tier of guns. 2. a lightly armed ship, used esp. as a convoy escort and ranging in size between a destroyer and a gunboat. [1630–40; < French, Middle French < Middle Dutch corver pursuit boat (derivative of corf fishing boat, literally, basket)]

Thesaurus

Noun

corvette - a highly maneuverable escort warship; smaller than a destroyercombat ship, war vessel, warship - a government ship that is available for waging war

Translations

corvette

corvette,

small warship, classed between a frigate and a sloop-of-war. Corvettes usually were flush-decked and carried fewer than 28 guns. They were widely employed in escorting convoys and attacking merchant ships during the great naval wars of the late 18th and early 19th cent., but corvettes passed from use with the transition from sail to steam. At the beginning of World War II the term was reintroduced to designate a small vessel of about 1,000 tons displacement, armed with depth charges and a single 4-in. (10.2-cm) gun. In the early years of the war, large numbers of these vessels were employed by the British and Canadian navies as convoy escorts in the North Atlantic; later they were supplanted by the larger, faster, and better-armed frigates.

Corvette

(1) A light three-masted gunboat in 18th- and 19th-century sailing fleets designed for reconnaissance, dispatch service, and the performance of other auxiliary tasks. Its dis-placement ranged from 400 to 600 tons. In the second half of the 19th century the corvette was a full sail-rigged steamship with a displacement of 800 to 3,500 tons; the artillery (12 to 32 guns) was located on the upper deck.

(2) In the British and American navies during World War II (1939–45) corvettes were escort vessels having displacements of 900 to 1,500 tons and powered by piston-type steam engines. They were armed with a single 102-mm gun, 20–40-mm automatic antiaircraft guns, and depth charges.

corvette

[kȯr′vet] (naval architecture) A warship with a continuous deck from fore to stern, usually with no structure above, and usually with only one row of guns. A very maneuverable escort ship having antisubmarine and antiaircraft guns, depth charges, and detection equipment.

corvette

cor·vette

corvette

cor•vette

also cor•vet

corvette

corvette,

Corvette

corvette

corvette

Words related to corvette

noun a highly maneuverable escort warship

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