FRIGATE • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • Definition of Frigate

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/frˈɪgət/ Listen

noun

Frigate n.

Originally, a vessel of the Mediterranean propelled by sails and by oars. The French, about 1650, transferred the name to larger vessels, and by 1750 it had been appropriated for a class of war vessels intermediate between corvettes and ships of the line. Frigates, from about 1750 to 1850, had one full battery deck and, often, a spar deck with a lighter battery. They carried sometimes as many as fifty guns. After the application of steam to navigation steam frigates of largely increased size and power were built, and formed the main part of the navies of the world till about 1870, when the introduction of ironclads superseded them. (Formerly spelled frigat and friggot)

Any small vessel on the water. (Obs.)

Frigate bird (Zool.), a web-footed rapacious bird, of the genus Fregata; called also man-of-war bird, and frigate pelican. Two species are known; that of the Southern United States and West Indies is F. aquila. They are remarkable for their long wings and powerful flight. Their food consists of fish which they obtain by robbing gulls, terns, and other birds, of their prey. They are related to the pelicans.

Frigate mackerel (Zool.), an oceanic fish (Auxis Rochei) of little or no value as food, often very abundant off the coast of the United States.

Frigate pelican. (Zool.) Same as Frigate bird.

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Etymology of 'Frigate'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Frigate" Quotes from Famous Books

... but the people yet count on two days' hunting giving them food for the rest of the week. It is said that formerly single vessels have taken away as many as seven hundred, and that the ship's company of a frigate some years since brought down in one day two hundred tortoises ...

— A Naturalist's Voyage Round the World - The Voyage Of The Beagle • Charles Darwin

... And as to being blear-eyed, that must be caused by the simple fact that I have nothing all day long before my eyes but you, Gammer Gurton—you, with your face like a full moon—you, sailing through the room like a frigate, and with your grappling-irons, your hands, smashing to pieces everything except your ...

— Henry VIII And His Court • Louise Muhlbach

... had touched, spread a fan over "the poor little fellow's" head, to protect him from the blaze. He drew the ministering hand to him, and kissed it, and to that simple act he owed his escape from the horrors of an overcrowded hospital, teeming with typhus. He recovered, re-embarked on board the frigate Hermione, and was wrecked with her. "Trafalgar and a shipwreck in the space of two years," he used to say, "gave me enough of a seafaring life." He got leave to be transferred to the cavalry, and ...

— Memoirs • Prince De Joinville

... American heart. His manly figure affords a fine contrast to that of the traitor skulking down the lane (still shown as "Arnold's Path") at the back of the Robinson House in his flight to the British frigate moored out in the stream fifteen miles below the fort. A few hasty words had put his innocent wife in possession of the horrid story, and she had fallen, as if struck by his hand, in a swoon to the floor, where he left her unconscious of his frantic farewell. In her sad interview ...

— Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Vol. XVII. No. 101. May, 1876. • Various

... altogether adverse; but the King, who was yet inclined to favor the theory of Columbus, assented to the suggestion of the Bishop of Ceuta that the plan should be carried out in secret, and without Columbus' knowledge, by means of a caravel or light frigate. The caravel was dispatched, but it returned after a brief absence, the sailors having lost heart, and having refused to venture farther. Upon discovering this dishonorable transaction, Columbus felt so outraged and indignant that he sent off his brother Bartholomew ...

— Christopher Columbus and His Monument Columbia • Various

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