flota
(ˈfləʊtə)
[a. Sp. flota fleet.]
1. The name given to the Spanish fleet which used to cross the Atlantic and bring back to Spain the products of America and the West Indies. Also gen.
| 1690 Child Disc. Trade Pref. B. iv b, The arrival of the Spanish Flota. a 1763 Shenstone Elegies xiv, What envy'd flota bore so fair a freight? 1796 Nelson 28 Sept. in Nicolas Disp. II. 284, I believe I can destroy their Flota. |
¶ 2. ? erroneous use. A floating barrier (see quot.).
| 1777 Watson Philip II, II. xix. 180 For the greater security of..the work, a flota, one thousand two hundred feet long, was constructed of barks, bound together..with..beams pointed with iron, resembling a file of pikes. |