vessel

plural vessels · alternative obsolete vessell

1. A craft for transportation on or in water, air, or space.
   1. nauticalAny craft designed for transportation on or in water, such as a ship, boat, or submarine.First known use c.1300

      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 28, William E. Carter, Merri Sue Carter, “The British Longitude Act Reconsidered”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 2, page 87

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      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

      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., →OCLC, 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

      Synonyms: watercraft

   2. A craft designed for transportation through air or space.First known use 1915

      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

2. dialectalobsoleteuncountableDishes and cutlery collectively, especially if made of precious metals.First known use c.1300–c.1600

   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.

3. A container of liquid or other substance, such as a glass, goblet, cup, bottle, bowl, or pitcher.First known use c.1300
4. figurativelyA person as a container of qualities or feelings.First known use 1382

   A teacher should be a vessel of knowledge.

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   But the Lord said vnto him, Goe thy way: for hee is a chosen vessell vnto me, to beare my Name before the Gentiles, and Kings, and the children of Israel.

   1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Acts 9:15

   [The serpent] fit vessel, fittest imp of fraud, in whom to enter.

   1667, John Milton, “Book VIII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC

   I am a vessel that’s empty and useless / I am a bad seed that fell by the way

   1975, Dolly Parton, “The Seeker”

   But they [Christian nationalists] excuse all that by saying God works in mysterious ways, and that he sent us this flawed vessel by which we can achieve the goals that we want to achieve.

   2024 February 29, Tim Jonze, quoting Rob Reiner, “‘We need to reach as many people as we can’: Rob Reiner on Trump, family – and his brilliant, beloved movies”, in The Guardian, →ISSN

5. biologyA tube or canal that carries fluid in an animal or plant.First known use 1398

   Blood and lymph vessels are found in humans; xylem and phloem vessels are found in plants.

present singular third person vessels · US participle present vesseling · UK participle present vesselling · US participle past vesseled · US past vesseled · UK participle past vesselled · UK past vesselled · alternative obsolete vessell

1. transitiveTo put into a vessel.

   [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

   3 more examples

   1577, William Harrison, The Description of England in Holinshed’s Chronicles, Volume 1, Book 3, Chapter 12 “Of venemous beastes &c.,” 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.

   1627, Francis Bacon, Sylva Sylvarum: or, A Naturall Historie, London: W. Lee, Cent. VI, section 529, p. 137, 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 […]

   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