Definitions

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

  • transitive verb To transport (troops or supplies) by sea, as when ground or air routes are blocked.
  • noun A system or an instance of such transport.

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

  • verb military To transport by sea
  • noun military transportation by sea

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From sea + airlift

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Examples

  • The major exception is strategic sealift, which is delivered through a 25-year private finance initiative with AWSR Shipping Ltd.

    unknown title 2009

  • Reagan's massive military buildup had sacrificed unglamorous functions like transport ships "sealift" and minesweepers to pay for high-tech programs like "Star Wars," stealth technology, fighter aircraft, attack subs and cruise missiles.

    Geoffrey Wawro: Desert Storm Turns Twenty: What Really Happened in 1991, and Why it Matters, Part I of II Geoffrey Wawro 2011

  • Reagan's massive military buildup had sacrificed unglamorous functions like transport ships "sealift" and minesweepers to pay for high-tech programs like "Star Wars," stealth technology, fighter aircraft, attack subs and cruise missiles.

    Geoffrey Wawro: Desert Storm Turns Twenty: What Really Happened in 1991, and Why it Matters, Part I of II Geoffrey Wawro 2011

  • Each summer, up to eight CCG icebreakers provide not only scientific research platforms, search-and-rescue capability, pollution response capacity, support for commercial shipping engaged in the annual "sealift," and occasionally "platform" support for the RCMP and Armed Forces, but the big red and white hulls are also the main element in Canada's sovereignty presence in these waters...

    "A job for the Coast Guard" 2007

  • Each summer, up to eight CCG icebreakers provide not only scientific research platforms, search-and-rescue capability, pollution response capacity, support for commercial shipping engaged in the annual "sealift," and occasionally "platform" support for the RCMP and Armed Forces, but the big red and white hulls are also the main element in Canada's sovereignty presence in these waters...

    Archive 2007-07-01 2007

  • Once a year, in the late summer, a large ship arrives, known as the "sealift", enabling the delivery of large items such as trucks, equipment and building materials.

    SooNews.ca Headlines 2010

  • Then there's the advanced defense ties with the U.S. Hanoi and Washington signed their first defense cooperation agreement this year, and two U.S. military sealift ships have undertaken minor repairs in Cam Ranh Bay.

    South China Sea Two-Step Carlyle A. Thayer 2011

  • The United States Merchant Marine provided the greatest sealift in history between the production army at home and the fighting forces scattered around the globe in World War II.

    Obama: Oh, what’s another lie… 2010

  • Transportation Command took control of various air - and sealift commands, and of getting matériel right up to the battlefront.

    What Rumsfeld Got Right 2008

  • Transportation Command took control of various air - and sealift commands, and of getting matériel right up to the battlefront.

    What Rumsfeld Got Right 2008

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