Word.ws English Dictionary

ship

/ˈʃɪp/

ship noun: a water-borne vessel generally larger than a boat. Also the clipping of relationship.

ship: a water-borne vessel generally larger than a boat
Image: © 2004 by Tomasz Sienicki, CC BY 2.5 pl, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun (1)

ship (plural ships)

  1. A water-borne vessel generally larger than a boat.
    Synonyms:
    keel
  2. (in-compounds) A vessel which travels through any medium other than across land, such as an airship or spaceship.
  3. (in-compounds) A spaceship.
    • 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...1991 January 10, Paul Callahan, “Questions and comments about Conway's Life (long)”, in comp.theory.cell-automata (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).1995 November 12, Rich Holmes, “Totalistic spaceships”, in comp.theory.cell-automata (Usenet)
  4. A particular still life consisting of an empty cell surrounded by six live cells.
    • 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 May 7, David Bell, “HighLife - An Interesting Variant of Life (part 1/3)”, in comp.theory.cell-automata (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).1994 June 5, Paul Callahan, “Interesting life program”, in comp.theory.cell-automata (Usenet)
  5. (archaic, 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.
  7. The third card of the Lenormand deck.
  8. (dated) An aircraft.
    • 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.1944, Wolfgang Langewiesche, Stick and Rudder: An Explanation of the Art of Flying
    • 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."1994, American Aviation Historical Society Journal, page 107

Verb (1)

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

  1. (transitive) To send by water-borne transport.
    • All the timber whereof, was […] ſhipped in the bay of Attalia[…], from whence it was by ſea tranſported to Pelusium.1603, Richard Knolles, “The Life of Solyman, the Fourth and Most Magnificent Emperour of the Turkes”, in The Generall Historie of the Turkes, […], London: […] Adam Islip, →OCLC, page 670
    • 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.2014 June 14, “It's a gas”, in The Economist, volume 411, number 8891
  2. (transitive) To send (a parcel or container) to a recipient (by any means of transport).
    • to ship freight by railroad
  3. (ergative) 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. (ergative) To engage to serve on board a vessel.
    • to ship seamen
    • I shipped on a man-of-war.
  5. (intransitive) To embark on a ship.
    • I shipped with them and becoming friends, we set forth on our venture, in health and safety; and sailed with a fair wind, till we came to a city called Madínat-al-Sín; […]1885–1888, Richard F[rancis] Burton, transl. and editor, “Night 563”, in A Plain and Literal Translation of the Arabian Nights’ Entertainments, now Entituled The Book of the Thousand Nights and a...
  6. (transitive) To put or secure in its place.
    • to ship the tiller or rudder
    • To the upper part of the frame a chain is attached, and if the screw shaft be drawn back out of the boss, the square frame may be hove up by carrying the chain to a winch—the sliding block maintaining the frame in the perpendicular position. By the use of this contrivance, therefore, the screw may...1846, editorial staff, “Maudslay's Improvements in propelling Machinery”, in Scientific American, series 1, Volume 2, Issue 13, page 100
  7. (transitive) To take in or take on (water) over the sides of a vessel.
    • She was half in the water, a mere hulk, her rigging torn to shreds, her main mast cut away, and every sea she shipped, Melmoth could hear distinctly the dying cries of those who were swept away, or perhaps of those whose mind and body, alike exhausted, relaxed their benumbed hold of hope and life...1820, [Charles Robert Maturin], Melmoth the Wanderer: A Tale. […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Company, and Hurst, Robinson, and Co., […], →OCLC, page 159
    • But as things were it was manageable enough, and we did not ship a cupful of water.1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC
  8. (colloquial) To leave, depart, scram.
    • Douglas: Sorry girls, you better go. Girls! Ship it!2008 November 21, Graham Linehan, The IT Crowd, Season 3, Episode 1
  9. (colloquial, ditransitive) To pass (from one person to another).
    • Can you ship me the ketchup?
    • 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.2011 September 18, Ben Dirs, “Rugby World Cup 2011: England 41-10 Georgia”, in BBC Sport
  10. (ambitransitive, slang) To go all in.
  11. (transitive) To trade or send (a player) to another team.
    • Twins ship Delmon Young to Tigers.
  12. (transitive) To draw (a penalty) by bungling a kick and giving the opposing team possession.
    • 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.2011 October 1, Tom Fordyce, “Rugby World Cup 2011: England 16-12 Scotland”, in BBC Sport
    • 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.2015 February 11, “Six Nations: Scotland raw but capable of improving”, in The Scotsman

Noun (2)

ship (plural ships)

  1. (slang) A romantic pairing of two or more characters or real people, especially one imagined by fans.

Verb (2)

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

  1. (slang, transitive) 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.

Also used as

ship is also the clipping of relationship.

ship meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

ship in Hindi

large water craft
पोत pot, जहाज़ jahāz, जलयान jalyān
vessel which travels through any medium other than land
यान yān, विमान vimān, पोत pot

ship in Tamil

large water craft
கப்பல் kappal

ship in Marathi

large water craft
जहाज jahāj

ship in Urdu

large water craft
جَہاز jahāz, پوت pot
More languagesFewer languages
ship in Bengali
জাহাজ jahaj
ship in Telugu
ఓడ ōḍa, నావ nāva, నౌక nauka, జలమార్గ రవాణా jalamārga ravāṇā
ship in Malayalam
കപ്പല് kappal, നൌക nauka
ship in Kannada
ನೌಕೆ nauke
ship in Punjabi
ਜਹਾਜ਼ jahāz, ਨਾਵ nāv, جَہاز jahāz, ناو nāv
ship in Gujarati
જહાજ jahāj, વહાણ vahāṇ
ship in Odia
ଜାହାଜ jāhāja, ବୋଇତ boita, ଗୋରାପ gorāpa
ship in Sanskrit
नौ nau, नाव nāva, पोत pota
ship in Sinhala
නැව næwa
ship in Assamese
জাহাজ zahaz
ship in Nepali
जहाज jahāj
ship in Pashto
کښتۍ kex̌tǝy, کيښتۍ kix̌tᶕy, بېړۍ beṛᶕy, ابګوټ abgaṭ
ship in Tagalog
barko, daong
ship in Arabic
سَفِينَة safīna, سَفينة səfinə, شَحَنَ šaḥana
ship in Malay
kapal
ship in Indonesian
kapal
ship in Persian
کَشْتی kašti, ناو nâv, جَهاز jahâz, سَفینِه safine
ship in Thai
เรือ rʉʉa, กำปั่น gam-bpàn, คู่จิ้น kûu-jîn, จิ้น jîn
ship in Vietnamese
tàu thuỷ, tàu
ship in Myanmar
သင်္ဘော sangbhau:
Sindhi
جَهازُ jahāzu
Kashmiri
जहाज़ jahāz

Examples of ship in a sentence

  • We were shipping so much water I was sure we would capsize.
  • 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.1991 January 10, Paul Callahan, “Questions and comments about Conway's Life (long)”, in comp.theory.cell-automata (Usenet):
  • 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?1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “chapter 19”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers...
  • By the use of this contrivance, therefore, the screw may be shipped or unshipped with facility.1846, editorial staff, “Maudslay's Improvements in propelling Machinery”, in Scientific American, series 1, Volume 2, Issue 13, page 100:
  • 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.2017, Helen Razer, Total Propaganda: Basic Marxist Brainwashing for the Angry and the Young, Allen & Unwin, →ISBN:

All 40 example sentences with ship

Synonyms of ship

Forms of ship

Noun
pluralships
alternative form (obsolete)shipp
alternative form (obsolete)shippe
Verb
third-person singular presentships
present participleshipping
past participleshipped
pastshipped

Past tense of ship: shipped

Plural of ship: ships

Origin of ship

From Middle English chip, schepe, schip, schup, scip, scippe, ship, shup, ssip, from Old English sċip, sċyp, from Proto-West Germanic *skip, from Proto-Germanic *skipą (“ship; tub, vessel”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *skey- (“to split”). More at shift. Cognates Cognate with North Frisian schap, skap, Skep (“ship”), Saterland Frisian Schip, Skip (“ship”), West Frisian skip (“ship”), Central Franconian Scheff (“ship”), Dutch schip (“ship”), German Schiff (“ship”), Low German Schipp (“ship”), Luxembourgish Schëff (“ship”), Vilamovian śejf, siejft (“ship”), Yiddish שיף (shif, “ship”), Danish skib (“ship”), Faroese, Icelandic, Norwegian Bokmål, and Norwegian Nynorsk skip (“ship”), Swedish skepp (“ship”), Gothic 𐍃𐌺𐌹𐍀 (skip, “ship”). Compare typologically boat, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeyd-.

From Middle English schippen, schipen, from Old English sċipian, from Proto-West Germanic *skipōn, from Proto-Germanic *skipōną, from Proto-Germanic *skipą (“ship”). Doublet of equip.

Clipping of relationship.

Words formed from ship

Phrases with ship

126 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with ship

39 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about ship

What does ship mean?
Ship means a water-borne vessel generally larger than a boat.
What is ship in Hindi?
Ship in Hindi is पोत (pot), जहाज़ (jahāz), जलयान (jalyān). See Ship meaning in Hindi.
How do you use ship in a sentence?
We were shipping so much water I was sure we would capsize.
What part of speech is ship?
Ship can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce ship?
Ship is pronounced /ˈʃɪp/.
What is the plural of ship?
The plural of ship is ships.

Words near ship in the dictionary

  1. Shiolan
  2. Shion
  3. shionone
  4. Shiori
  5. shioyaki
  6. ship
  7. ship a sea
  8. ship ahoy
  9. ship and let ship
  10. ship biscuit
  11. ship biscuits

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: ship (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-uk-a ship.ogg, en-us-ship.ogg.

Cite this entry: “ship.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/ship. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.