Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The act of accompanying or escorting, especially for protective purposes.
  • noun An accompanying and protecting force, as of ships or troops.
  • noun A group, as of ships or motor vehicles, traveling together with a protective escort or for safety or convenience.
  • transitive verb To accompany, especially for protection; escort.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To accompany on the way for protection, either by sea or land; escort: as, ships of war convoyed the Jamaica fleet; troops convoyed the baggage-wagons.
  • To accompany for safety or guidance; attend as an escort on a journey.
  • To convey.
  • noun Conveyance.
  • noun The act of accompanying and escorting for protection or defense; escort.
  • noun The protection afforded by an accompanying escort, as of troops, a vessel of war, etc.
  • noun An escort or accompanying and protecting force; a convoying vessel, fleet, or troop.
  • noun The ship, fleet, party, or thing conducted or escorted and protected; that which is convoyed: as, in the fog the frigate lost sight of her convoy.
  • noun A friction-brake for carriages.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To accompany for protection, either by sea or land; to attend for protection; to escort.
  • noun The act of attending for defense; the state of being so attended; protection; escort.
  • noun A vessel or fleet, or a train or trains of wagons, employed in the transportation of munitions of war, money, subsistence, clothing, etc., and having an armed escort.
  • noun A protection force accompanying ships, etc., on their way from place to place, by sea or land; an escort, for protection or guidance.
  • noun obsolete Conveyance; means of transportation.
  • noun A drag or brake applied to the wheels of a carriage, to check their velocity in going down a hill.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun nautical One or more merchant ships sailing in company to the same general destination under the protection of naval vessels
  • noun A group of vehicles travelling together for safety, especially one with an escort
  • verb transitive To escort a group of vehicles, and provide protection.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a collection of merchant ships with an escort of warships
  • verb escort in transit
  • noun a procession of land vehicles traveling together
  • noun the act of escorting while in transit

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[From Middle English convoyen, to escort, from Old French convoier, variant of conveier; see convey.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English, from Old French convoier, another form of conveier, from Medieval Latin conviare ("to accompany on the way"), from Latin com- ("together") + via ("way").

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Examples

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  • "Both main routes into Inverness – the A9 and the A96 – were closed at one stage. Later, as conditions eased, a convoy system was put in place to help traffic negotiate treacherous stretches of the A9 between Inverness and Aviemore."

    - Frank Urquhart, Even hardiest of Scots beaten by the snow, thescotsman.com, 6 Feb 2009.

    February 13, 2009