See also: -ship

English edit

Pronunciation edit

  • enPR: shĭp, IPA(key): /ʃɪp/
  • (file)
  • (file)
  • Rhymes: -ɪp

Etymology 1 edit

From Middle English ship, schip, from Old English sċip, from Proto-West Germanic *skip, from Proto-Germanic *skipą, from Proto-Indo-European *skēyb-, *skib-. More at shift.

Alternative forms edit

Noun edit

ship (plural ships)

 
A ship (senses 1 and 5).
  1. (nautical) A water-borne vessel generally larger than a boat.
  2. (chiefly in combination) A vessel which travels through any medium other than across land, such as an airship or spaceship.
  3. (cellular automata, chiefly in combination) A spaceship.
    • 1991 January 10, Paul Callahan, “Questions and comments about Conway's Life (long)”, in comp.theory.cell-automata[1] (Usenet):
      I don't know if there is another standard method, but the following approach works: Consider the collision of gliders from three rakes that produces a medium spaceship in the _same_ direction as the rake. This ship will follow along to the next collision point, which will not produce a spaceship, but rather some stable garbage, consisting of a block and a beehive.
    • 1995 November 12, Rich Holmes, “Totalistic spaceships”, in comp.theory.cell-automata[2] (Usenet):
      Aside from the one ship in B3/S124 shown above, the only spaceships of this size (with period up to 20) in any of these rules are the Life glider and the three known from B2/ (each of which also is found in some variants of the Life or B2/ rules).
    • 1999 June 23, Mirek Wojtowicz, “What else has Brian in his Brain?”, in comp.theory.cell-automata[3] (Usenet):
      While constructing a butterfly double gun I put one cell at the wrong site and the result was highly surprising: my pattern turned to a big, beautiful ship, very similar to those found in Aqua25 from Al Hensel's collection!
  4. (cellular automata) A particular still life consisting of an empty cell surrounded by six live cells.
    • 1994 May 7, David Bell, “HighLife - An Interesting Variant of Life (part 1/3)”, in comp.theory.cell-automata[4] (Usenet):
      But there are no ships, and no natural traffic lights or honey farms. The ship self destructs, and the predecessors to the traffic lights and honey farms self-destruct in spectacular manners.
    • 1994 June 5, Paul Callahan, “Interesting life program”, in comp.theory.cell-automata[5] (Usenet):
      In the case of these "ship" neighborhoods, birth will occur at the center cell, thus deviating from the "overcrowding" rule of Life (HighLife allows such a birth in all neighborhoods containing 6 cells).
  5. (archaic, nautical, formal) A sailing vessel with three or more square-rigged masts.
  6. A dish or utensil (originally fashioned like the hull of a ship) used to hold incense[15th century].
  7. (cartomancy) The third card of the Lenormand deck.
  8. (dated) An aircraft.
    • 1944, Wolfgang Langewiesche, Stick and Rudder: An Explanation of the Art of Flying:
      This means that the landing wheels are not so far forward of the ship's center of gravity ; and that means that ground contact is less likely to produce a bounce.
    • 1994, American Aviation Historical Society Journal, page 107:
      In addition to the four NAA pilots, three Air Force and one RAF pilot, all based at Edwards, flew the ship after first being checked out on the "tether rig."
Usage notes edit
  • The singular form ship is sometimes used without any article, producing such sentences as "In all, we spent three weeks aboard ship." and "Abandon ship!". (Similar patterns may be seen with many place nouns, such as camp, home, work, and school, but the details vary between them.)
  • Ships were traditionally regarded as feminine and the pronouns her and she are still sometimes used instead of it, though this usage is in decline.
Hyponyms edit
Derived terms edit
Related terms edit
Terms etymologically related to ship (noun)
Descendants edit
  • Japanese: シップ (shippu)
Translations edit

Etymology 2 edit

From Middle English schippen, schipen, from Old English sċipian, from Proto-Germanic *skipōną, from Proto-Germanic *skipą (ship).

Verb edit

ship (third-person singular simple present ships, present participle shipping, simple past and past participle shipped)

  1. (transitive) To send by water-borne transport.
    • 1603, Richard Knolles, The Generall Historie of the Turkes, [], London: [] Adam Islip, →OCLC:
      The timber was [] shipped in the bay of Attalia, [] from whence it was by sea transported to Palusium.
    • 2014 June 14, “It's a gas”, in The Economist, volume 411, number 8891:
      One of the hidden glories of Victorian engineering is proper drains. Isolating a city’s effluent and shipping it away in underground sewers has probably saved more lives than any medical procedure except vaccination.
  2. (transitive) To send (a parcel or container) to a recipient (by any means of transport).
    to ship freight by railroad
  3. (transitive, intransitive) To release a product (not necessarily physical) to vendors or customers; to launch.
    Our next issue ships early next year.
    It compiles? Ship it!
  4. (transitive, intransitive) To engage to serve on board a vessel.
    to ship seamen
    I shipped on a man-of-war.
    • 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “chapter 19”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC:
      With finger pointed and eye levelled at the Pequod, the beggar-like stranger stood a moment, as if in a troubled reverie; then starting a little, turned and said:—“Ye’ve shipped, have ye? Names down on the papers? Well, well, what’s signed, is signed; and what’s to be, will be; []
  5. (intransitive) To embark on a ship.
  6. (transitive, nautical) To put or secure in its place.
    to ship the tiller or rudder
  7. (transitive) To take in (water) over the sides of a vessel.
    We were shipping so much water I was sure we would capsize.
  8. (colloquial, with dummy it) Leave, depart, scram.
    • 2008 November 21, Graham Linehan, The IT Crowd, Season 3, Episode 1:
      Douglas: Sorry girls, you better go. Girls! Ship it!
  9. (transitive, colloquial) To pass (from one person to another).
    Can you ship me the ketchup?
    • 2011 September 18, Ben Dirs, “Rugby World Cup 2011: England 41-10 Georgia”, in BBC Sport:
      And when scrum-half Ben Youngs, who had a poor game, was burgled by opposite number Irakli Abuseridze and the ball shipped down the line to Irakli Machkhaneli, it looked like Georgia had scored a try of their own, but the winger's foot was in touch.
  10. (poker slang, transitive, intransitive) To go all in.
  11. (sports) To trade or send a player to another team.
    Twins ship Delmon Young to Tigers.
  12. (rugby) To bungle a kick and give the opposing team possession.
    • 2011 October 1, Tom Fordyce, “Rugby World Cup 2011: England 16-12 Scotland”, in BBC Sport:
      England were shipping penalties at an alarming rate - five in the first 15 minutes alone - and with Wilkinson missing three long-distance pots of his own in the first 20 minutes, the alarm bells began to ring for Martin Johnson's men.
    • 2015 February 11, “Six Nations: Scotland raw but capable of improving”, in The Scotsman:
      They shipped penalties, lost field position, and in the second-half, having retreated to the changing room buoyed by Dougie Fife’s well-worked try, found themselves ceding two-thirds of the territory and with it, the lion’s share of the ball.
Derived terms edit
Terms derived from ship (verb)
Translations edit

Etymology 3 edit

Clipping of relationship.

Noun edit

ship (plural ships)

  1. (fandom slang) A fictional romantic relationship between two characters, either real or themselves fictional, especially one explored in fan fiction.
Coordinate terms edit
Derived terms edit
Translations edit

Verb edit

ship (third-person singular simple present ships, present participle shipping, simple past and past participle shipped)

  1. (fandom slang) To support or approve of a fictional romantic relationship between two characters, typically in fan fiction or other fandom contexts.
    I ship Kirk and Spock in “Star Trek”.
    I ship Peggy and Angie in “Marvel's Agent Carter”.
    • 2017, Helen Razer, Total Propaganda: Basic Marxist Brainwashing for the Angry and the Young, Allen & Unwin, →ISBN:
      I should warn you that I could not identify a ‘dank meme’ if the fate of the working class depended on it and that I shall not be ‘shipping’ Lenin and Trotsky.
Derived terms edit
Translations edit
See also edit

Further reading edit

Anagrams edit

French edit

Etymology edit

Borrowed from English ship.

Pronunciation edit

Noun edit

ship m (plural ships)

  1. (fandom slang) ship

Middle English edit

Noun edit

ship

  1. Alternative form of schip

Portuguese edit

Etymology edit

Unadapted borrowing from English ship, clipping of relationship.

Pronunciation edit

 

Noun edit

ship m (plural ships)

  1. (Brazil, fandom slang) ship (a fictional romantic relationship between two characters, either real or themselves fictional)

Derived terms edit

Spanish edit

Etymology edit

Borrowed from English ship.

Noun edit

ship m (plural ships)

  1. (fandom slang) ship

Vietnamese edit

Etymology edit

Clipping of English shipping.

Pronunciation edit

Verb edit

ship

  1. to ship (goods to customers), to make a delivery
    Synonym: giao
    • 2018, MediaZ, Instagram: Giải pháp xây dựng thương hiệu và bán hàng, NXB Thế giới, page 116:
      Một số trang thường sử dụng từ "Miễn phí" trong hồ sơ của họ, có thể là miễn phí ship hàng, tư vấn miễn phí…
      Some pages tend to use the word "Free" in their files, which can mean free delivery of goods, free advice, etc.
    • 2020, Nguyễn Chu Nam Phương, Numagician: Đánh thức phù thủy trí nhớ trong bạn, NXB Đà Nẵng:
      Hình dung tôi ra bưu điện, thì thấy họ mới nâng cấp dịch vụ, cho vịt Donald đi ship hàng.
      Imagine I go to the post office and see they just upgraded their services and allow Donald Duck to send goods.
    • 2021, Lam Huynh, Nhân sinh cảm ngộ, tập 3:
      Ban đầu, cô đã giúp bạn của mình mua hàng miễn phí và cô cũng trả hộ tiền ship nhiều lần.
      At first, she helped her friend buy goods for free and many times she also paid the delivery fee for him.