Definition of "cruise"

cruise¹

/kɹuːz/

noun
plural cruises
1. A sea or lake voyage, especially one taken for pleasure.
  Quotations
  Judge Short had gone to town, and Farrar was off for a three days' cruise up the lake. I was bitterly regretting I had not gone with him when the distant notes of a coach horn reached my ear, and I descried a four-in-hand winding its way up the inn road from the direction of Mohair.
  1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter IV, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd.
  He departed with the Naniwa and the Hashidate²⁰ for a two day cruise, skirting the Wuchiu and Hui Ch’uan Islands and the shore of Fukien Province.
  1936, Edwin A. Falk, Togo and the Rise of Japanese Sea Power‎, Longmans, Green and Co., page 229‎
2. (aeronautics) Portion of aircraft travel at a constant airspeed and altitude between ascent and descent phases.
3. (US, military, informal) A period spent in the Marine Corps.
  Quotations
  I ended my cruise of four years in the Marine Corps at the first Officers' Training Camp for enlisted men at Quantico […]
  1919, United States. Marine Corps, Recruiters' Bulletin, page 16
  The New Orleans had to have numerous alterations made, and as the Chicago was just about going into commission, I was ordered to that ship to finish my cruise.
  2015, George Barnett, Andy Barnett, George Barnett, Marine Corps Commandant: A Memoir, 1877-1923
4. A car enthusiasts' event where they drive their vehicles in a group. See Cruising (driving).
5. (bodybuilding, slang) A period of reducing the dosage of PEDs instead of cycling them off as opposed to a full-dosed cycle (blast).
verb
third-person singular simple present cruises, present participle cruising, simple past and past participle cruised
1. (intransitive) To sail about, especially for pleasure.
  Quotations
  He and Gerald usually challenged the rollers in a sponson canoe when Gerald was there for the weekend; or, when Lansing came down, the two took long swims seaward or cruised about in Gerald's dory, clad in their swimming-suits; and Selwyn's youth became renewed in a manner almost ridiculous, […].
  1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter IX, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company
2. (intransitive) To travel at constant speed for maximum operating efficiency.
3. (transitive) To move about an area leisurely in the hope of discovering something, or looking for custom.
4. (transitive, intransitive, forestry) To inspect (forest land) for the purpose of estimating the quantity of lumber it will yield.
5. (transitive, intransitive, colloquial) To actively seek a romantic partner or casual sexual partner by moving about a particular area; to troll.
6. (transitive, colloquial) To attempt to pick up as a casual sexual partner; hit on
  Quotations
  Lot of not too bad looking boys there but when M came in I knew right then: him. Very thin & feminine, brown hair fluffed around his sharp featured face. So I began cruising him.
  1970-1975, Lou Sullivan, personal diary, quoted in 2019, Ellis Martin, Zach Ozma (editors), We Both Laughed In Pleasure
  We see him [Joseph Huff-Hannon] approach several sets of men to ak if they have "a minute to talk about climate change"; they dismiss him out of hand, clearly more interesting in playing volleyball and cruising—including cruising Huff-Hannon himself—than in listening to bad news.
  2018, Nicole Seymour, Bad Environmentalism, page 144
7. (intransitive, child development) To walk while holding on to an object (stage in development of ambulation, typically occurring at 10 months).
8. (intransitive, sports) To win easily and convincingly.
9. (intransitive) To take part in a cruise (car enthusiasts' event where they drive their vehicles in a group).
10. (bodybuilding, slang) To have a period of reducing the dosage of PEDs instead of cycling them off as opposed to going through a full-dosed cycle (blast).

cruise²

/kɹuːz/

noun
plural cruises
1. A small cup; cruse.
  Quotations
  And she said, As the Lord thy God liveth, I have not a cake, but an handful of meal in a barrel, and a little oil in a cruse: and, behold, I am gathering two sticks, that I may go in and dress it for me and my son, that we may eat it, and die.
  King James translators, 1 Kings 17:12