Definition of "vessel"

vessel

/ˈvɛs.əl/

noun
plural vessels
1. (nautical) Any craft designed for transportation on water, such as a ship or boat.
  Quotations
  But my hope was, that if I stood along this coast till I came to that part where the English traded, I should find some of their vessels upon their usual design of trade, that would relieve and take us in.
  1719 May 6 (Gregorian calendar), [Daniel Defoe], The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, […], 3rd edition, London: […] W[illiam] Taylor […], published 1719
  Merchants, common sailors, captains of vessels, skippers, […] naval officers of all countries, and the Governments of several states on the two continents, were deeply interested in the matter.
  1873, Jules Verne, chapter I, in [anonymous], transl., Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Seas; […], James R. Osgood edition, Boston, Mass.: Geo[rge] M[urray] Smith & Co., part I, page 3
  He saw now clearly that the sole crew of the vessel was these two dead men, and though he could not see their faces, he saw by their outstretched hands, which were all of ragged flesh, that they had been subjected to some strange exceptional process of decay.
  1905, H. G. Wells, The Empire of the Ants
  Conditions were horrendous aboard most British naval vessels at the time. Scurvy and other diseases ran rampant, killing more seamen each year than all other causes combined, including combat.
  2012 March, William E. Carter, Merri Sue Carter, “The British Longitude Act Reconsidered”, in American Scientist‎, volume 100, number 2, page 87
2. A craft designed for transportation through air or space.
  Quotations
  Driven from their home system by the geth nearly three centuries ago, most quarians now live aboard the Migrant Fleet, a flotilla of fifty thousand vessels ranging in size from passenger shuttles to mobile space stations.
  2008, BioWare, Mass Effect (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, PC, scene: Quarians Codex entry
3. (uncountable, obsolete or dialectal) Dishes and cutlery collectively, especially if made of precious metals.
  Quotations
  All his Vessell was of golde and siluer, pottis, basons, ewers, dysshes, flagons, barels, cuppes, and all other thyngis.
  1523, John Bourchier, translated by Jean Froissart, Here begynneth the first volum of sir Iohan Froyssart : of the cronycles of Englande, Fraunce, Spayne, Portyngale, Scotlande, Bretayne, Flauders: and other places adioynynge.
4. A container of liquid or other substance, such as a glass, goblet, cup, bottle, bowl, or pitcher.
5. A person as a container of qualities or feelings.
  Quotations
  He is a chosen vessel unto me.
  1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], Acts ix:15
  [The serpent] fit vessel, fittest imp of fraud, in whom to enter.
  1667, John Milton, “Book VIII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […]; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873,
  I am a vessel that’s empty and useless / I am a bad seed that fell by the way.
  1975, Dolly Parton, The Seeker lyrics
6. (biology) A tube or canal that carries fluid in an animal or plant.
verb
third-person singular simple present vessels, present participle vesselling or (US) vesseling, simple past and past participle vesselled or (US) vesseled
1. (transitive) To put into a vessel.
  Quotations
  Our hony alſo is taken and reputed to be the beſt bycauſe it is harder, better wrought & clenlyer veſſelled vp, thẽ that which cõmeth from beyond the ſea, where they ſtampe and ſtraine their combes, Bées, & young Blow|inges altogither into the ſtuffe, as I haue béene informed.
  1577, William Harrison, The Description of England in Holinshed’s Chronicles, Volume 1, Book 3, Chapter 12 “Of venemous beastes &c.,”
  The fourth Rule ſhall be, to marke what Herbs, ſome Earths doe put fourth of themſelves; And to take that Earth, and to Pot it, or to Veſſell it; And in that to ſet the Seed you would change […]
  1627, Francis Bacon, Sylva Sylvarum: or, A Naturall Historie, London: W. Lee, Cent. VI, section 529, p. 137
  Man had at the firſt, and ſo have all ſouls before their entrance into the body, an explicite methodicall knowledge, but they are no ſooner veſſel’d, but that liberty is loſt, and nothing remains but a vaſt confuſed notion of the creature […]
  1662, John Heydon, The Harmony of the World‎, London: Robert Horn, Epistle Dedicatory
  [Samuel 'Sam' Oliver:] Alright (or: All right), so the Devil didn't say that the winner was the one who vesseled (or: vesselled) him, just the one who sends him back to hell.
  2009, Reaper (TV series), 2nd season, episode known as The Home Stretch

Definition of "vessel"

vessel

noun

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

verb

Quotations