vessels

Noun

vessel (plural vessels)

1. Any craft designed for transportation on or in water, such as a ship, boat, or submarine.
   • 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, […], London: […] W[illiam] Taylor […], →OCLC

   Synonyms:

   watercraft

2. A craft designed for transportation through air or space.
   • 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, →ISBN, →OCLC, PC, scene: Quarians Codex entry
3. (dialectal, obsolete, uncountable) Dishes and cutlery collectively, especially if made of precious metals.
   • 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...
4. A container of liquid or other substance, such as a glass, goblet, cup, bottle, bowl, or pitcher.
5. (figuratively) A person as a container of qualities or feelings.
   • A teacher should be a vessel of knowledge.
6. A tube or canal that carries fluid in an animal or plant.
   • Blood and lymph vessels are found in humans; xylem and phloem vessels are found in plants.

See all 7 meanings of vessel