frigate
(ˈfrɪgət)
Forms: 6–7 fregate, -att, -ot, frig(g)ot(e, -tt, 6–9 frigat, (6 frygatte, 7 fricket, friggatt, -ett), 6– frigate. Also 6 in It. form fragatta
[ad. Fr. frégate, ad. It. fregata, fragata, = Sp., Pg., Cat. fragata.
The ultimate etymology is unknown, the hypothesis of Diez, that it represents a late L. fabricāta in the sense ‘building’ (cf. F. bâtiment building, ship), being generally rejected by recent scholars.]
1. A light and swift vessel, orig. built for rowing, afterwards for sailing. Obs. exc. poet.
| 1585 T. Washington tr. Nicholay's Voy. i. ii. 2 b, With a frigat to accompany us and to bring backe newes from us. 1588 Parke tr. Mendoza's Hist. China 151 All which people were embarked in small ships and two frygattes [printed foygattes]. 1599 Hakluyt Voy. II. i. 111 And toward Sunne set, the castle sent a Fragatta vnto vs, to giue vs warning of three Foistes comming after vs. 1613 Sherley Trav. Persia 8 Perceiving a Fregat a farre off, rowing towards vs. 1698 Fryer Acc. E. India & P. 106 The other are Frigats fit to Row or Sail. 1732 T. Lediard Sethos II. viii. 171 He promis'd..to furnish him..with a frigat to carry him..to the port. 1810 Scott Lady of L. i. xxiv, Permit me..to guide Your fairy frigate o'er the tide. |
2. Applied to a vessel of larger size.
† a. A merchantman. Also
galleon-frigate.
Obs.| 1624 Capt. Smith Virginia v. 180 They sent one of the two Frigats last left with them for England. a 1674 Clarendon Hist. Reb. ix. §115 They..had at that time another Frigat of Mr. Hasduncks. 1723 Lond. Gaz. No. 6142/2, 1/16 of the Craggs Frigate. 1800 Naval Chron. II. 237 Two more galleon frigates were expected. 1894 C. N. Robinson Brit. Fleet 229 Among the merchant-men serving against the Armada..was a frigate. |
| fig. 1642 Milton Apol. Smect. (1851) 298 He must cut out large docks..to unlade the foolish frigate of his unseasonable autorities. |
b. A war-vessel. In the Royal Navy, formerly a vessel of the class next in size and equipment to ships of the line, carrying from 28 to 60 guns on the main deck and a raised quarter-deck and forecastle. As subsequently used, the term no longer denoted a distinct class of vessels, being often applied to ships of much larger size than those that were so designated early in the nineteenth century. Since 1943, a naval escort vessel, a large corvette.
| 1630 R. Johnson's Kingd. & Commw. 224 There are continuall fights with the Portugall Frigats. 1641 Evelyn Mem. (1857) I. 41 The packet-boat..a pretty frigate of six guns. 1774 Goldsm. Nat. Hist. (1776) I. 264 Being with one of the king's frigates in the Baltic. 1825 J. Neal Bro. Jonathan III. 43 Without a single ship of war, frigate or sloop, to encounter a powerful navy. 1867 Smyth Sailor's Word-bk., Donkey-frigate, those of 28 guns, frigate-built; that is, having guns protected by an upper deck, with guns on the quarter-deck and forecastle. 1877 W. Thomson Voy. Challenger I. i. 11 She has all the accommodation of a frigate with the handiness and draught of water of a corvette. 1955 Times 10 May 7/1 The Leopard, a multi-purpose frigate with a heavy anti-aircraft armament, has an extreme length of 340 ft. and a beam of 40 ft. 1959 Chambers's Encycl. VI. 88/1 Frigate... The name was reintroduced during the second world war for a new type of convoy-escort vessel. |
3. A large swift-flying raptorial bird (
Fregata aquila or
Tachypetes aquilus), found near land in the tropical and warmer temperate seas. Also
frigate-bird,
frigate-petrel.
| 1738 E. Albin Nat. Hist. Birds III. 75 The Frigate Bird. The Indians call it so, because of the Swiftness of its Flight. 1756 Phil. Trans. XLIX. 627 The sea-birds, called frigates..quit the air, and seek the shore. 1837 Mrs. Caulfeild Deluge 94 At his side The kingly eagle, frigat, pelican. 1859 Darwin Orig. Spec. vi. (1878) 142 No one except Audubon has seen the frigate-bird..alight on the surface of the ocean. 1895 Daily News 16 Sept. 6/2 The Frigate Petrel..a specimen was washed up dead on the shore of Walney Island in November 1890. |
4. attrib. and
Comb., as
frigate-almshouse (
nonce-wd.),
frigate-fashion;
frigate-like adj. and
adv. Also
frigate-built a., having ‘a descent of some steps from the quarter-deck and forecastle into the waist’ (
Adm. Smyth);
frigate-bird,
-petrel (see 3);
frigate mackerel,
Auxis rochei or
A. thazard, fishes of the family Scombridæ, found in warm seas.
| a 1657 Lovelace Poems (1864) 201 Have you not seen a charact lie A great cathedral in the sea, Under whose Babylonian walls A small thin *frigot almshouse stalls? |
| 1676 Lond. Gaz. No. 1130/4 Viva Oranga of St. Malo's, Burthen 50 Tuns..*Frigat built. 1725 De Foe Voy. round World (1840) 213 A small frigate-built vessel. 1863 P. Barry Dockyard Econ. 75 A ship of more than usually heavy scantling, and with a variety of foreign timber judiciously distributed in all its parts, might have fairly claimed to be frigate-built. |
| 1641 Evelyn Mem. (1857) I. 18 Phineas Pett, inventor of the *frigate-fashion of building. |
| 1676 Lond. Gaz. No. 1077/4 A small Bark, called the Castle Frigat of Falmouth, burthen 25 to 30 Tun, built *Frigat like. 1708 Ibid. No. 4398/3 Captain Haddock..got Sight..of two Frigat-like Ships. |
| 1884 G. B. Goode Nat. Hist. Aquat. Anim. I. iii. 306 It is not unusual in the Bermudas, where it is called the ‘*Frigate Mackerel’, a name not inappropriate for adoption in this country [sc. the U.S.]. 1902 Jordan & Evermann Amer. Food & Game Fishes I. 277 The only species of this genus is the frigate mackerel. 1933 Bulletin (Sydney) 19 Apr. 20/4 The rare capture on the coast of Otago..of a fish known in Australia as the frigate mackerel. 1965 A. J. McClane Standard Fishing Encycl. 374/1 Frigate mackerels are generally small, seldom reaching a length of 2 feet. |