Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A small three-masted Mediterranean vessel with both square and lateen sails.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A small three-masted vessel, formerly much used by the Algerine corsairs, and now in use to some extent in Mediterranean commerce.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Naut.) A small three-masted vessel, with projecting bow stern and convex decks, used in the Mediterranean for transporting merchandise, etc. It carries large square sails, or both. Xebecs were formerly armed and used by corsairs.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A small, three-masted Mediterranean transport ship
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word xebec.
Examples
-
He was the master of a small three-masted vessel called a xebec, armed for privateering, the _San Antonio_, manned by Ivizans, engaged in constant strife with the galliots of the Algerian Moors and with the ships of England, the enemy of Spain.
The Dead Command From the Spanish Los Muertos Mandan Vicente Blasco Ib����ez 1897
-
Yet all such speed was invisible, as the wind vanishes when a swift xebec scuds before a tempest on the Ocean of Urth. We drifted so lazily that if I had not had faith in Apheta and the Hierarchs, I would have feared we would never reach the ship at all and be lost forever in that endless night.
The Urth of the New Sun Wolfe, Gene 1987
-
SHE WAS a xebec, low in the water and narrow at the waist.
The Urth of the New Sun Wolfe, Gene 1987
-
She was a xebec and looked handy enough -- I have always been lucky in my ships.
The Urth of the New Sun Wolfe, Gene 1987
-
He had received a wound in the right hand, when on board the xebec 'Cerf'.
Complete Project Gutenberg Collection of Memoirs of Napoleon Various
-
"I thank you for my own part," replied I; "but in conscience could you have abandoned us, after taking away our horses, and making us go on board the xebec, whether we would or not?"
Complete Project Gutenberg Collection of Memoirs of Napoleon Various
-
The cannonade which Bonaparte had heard since the morning, and the explosion of a Turkish gunboat, which was blown up by the artillery of the xebec, led him to fear that our situation was really perilous.
Complete Project Gutenberg Collection of Memoirs of Napoleon Various
-
Cairo obliged us to leave the xebec and get on board a djerm.
Complete Project Gutenberg Collection of Memoirs of Napoleon Various
-
"Here," he said, pointing to the lateen-rigged xebec; "you see that felucca-boat?"
Jim Davis John Masefield 1922
-
And some of the day the xebec came and hit us abaft the beam.
Something Else Again 1920
reesetee commented on the word xebec
A small, three-masted vessel of the Mediterranean, formerly much used by corsairs, now employed to some extent in commerce. Also spelled chebeck, zebec, and zebeck.
February 11, 2008
chained_bear commented on the word xebec
"'Mr Powell and Mr Comfrey are to go straight to Malta in that storeship over there.'
"'The xebec, or the polacre?'
'The vessel to the right,' said Graham somewhat testily. 'The vessel that is so busy, with sailors creeping up the masts.'"
--Patrick O'Brian, The Ionian Mission, 80
February 11, 2008
reesetee commented on the word xebec
I'm loving these O'Brian quotes, chained_bear. :-)
February 11, 2008
chained_bear commented on the word xebec
Yeah...thanks... I'm trying very hard not to give away plot points and stuff in them, in case anyone hasn't read them and wants to.
February 11, 2008
reesetee commented on the word xebec
So far, I haven't a clue. :-)
February 11, 2008
knitandpurl commented on the word xebec
"The steersmen steer the xebecs between steep, sheer clefts, where reefs prevent sheltered berth; there, the tempests whelm the decks, then wreck the keels — the helms, left crewless whenever the elements beset these crewmen."
Eunoia by Christian Bök (upgraded edition), p 41
May 21, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word xebec
Also xebeque.
May 21, 2010