Definition of frigate Frigate

/fɹɪˈgʌt/ - [frigut] - frig•ate

We found 12 definitions of frigate from 8 different sources.

What does frigate mean?

Noun Plural: frigates
frigate - a United States warship larger than a destroyer and smaller than a cruiser
		combat ship, war vessel, warship a government ship that is available for waging war
frigate - a medium size square-rigged warship of the 18th and 19th centuries

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frigate (Noun)
An obsolete type of sailing warship with a single continuous gun deck, typically used for patrolling, blockading, etc, but not in line of battle.
frigate (Noun)
A 19th c. type of warship combining sail and steam propulsion, typically of ironclad timber construction, supplementing and superseding sailing ships of the battle line until made obsolete by the development of the solely steam-propelled iron battleship.
frigate (Noun)
A modern type of warship, smaller than a destroyer, originally WWII introduced as an anti-submarine vessel but now general purpose.

frigate (n.)
Originally, a vessel of the Mediterranean propelled by sails and by oars. The French, about 1650, transferred the name to larger vessels, and by 1750 it had been appropriated for a class of war vessels intermediate between corvettes and ships of the line. Frigates, from about 1750 to 1850, had one full battery deck and, often, a spar deck with a lighter battery. They carried sometimes as many as fifty guns. After the application of steam to navigation steam frigates of largely increased size and power were built, and formed the main part of the navies of the world till about 1870, when the introduction of ironclads superseded them.
frigate (n.)
Any small vessel on the water.

frigate
frig′āt, n. in the Royal Navy, formerly a vessel in the class next to ships of the line, carrying 28 to 60 guns on the maindeck and a raised quarter-deck and forecastle—not now denoting a distinct class of vessels.—ns. Frig′ate-bird, a large tropical sea-bird, with very long wings; Frigatoon′, a small Venetian vessel with square stern and two masts. [O. Fr. fregate—It. fregata; ety. dub.]

frigate
(fregate, Fr.) in the navy, a light nimble ship built for the purposes of sailing swiftly. These vessels mount from twenty to thirty-eight guns, and are esteemed excellent cruizers.

frigate
In the Royal Navy, the next class vessel to a ship of the line; formerly a light nimble ship built for the purpose of sailing swiftly. The name was early known in the Mediterranean, and applied to a long kind of vessel, navigated in that sea, with sails and oars. The English were the first who appeared on the ocean with these ships, and equipped them for war as well as for commerce. These vessels mounted from 28 to 60 guns, and made excellent cruisers. Frigate is now apocryphal, being carried up to 7000 tons. The donkey-frigate was a late invention to serve patronage, and sprigs of certain houses were educated in them. They carried 28 guns, carronades, and were about 600 tons burden, commanded by captains who sometimes found a commander in a sloop which could blow him out of water.--Frigate is also the familiar name of the membranous zoophyte, Physalia pelagica, or Portuguese man-of-war.