xebec

American  

[zee-bek] / ˈzi bɛk /

Also zebeck.

noun

1. a small, three-masted vessel of the Mediterranean, formerly much used by corsairs, now employed to some extent in commerce.

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xebec British  

/ ˈziːbɛk /

noun

1. a small three-masted Mediterranean vessel with both square and lateen sails, formerly used by Algerian pirates and later used for commerce

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Etymology

Origin of xebec

1750–60; alteration of earlier chebec < French < Catalan xabec or Spanish xabeque (now jabeque ), both < Arabic shabbāk

Example Sentences

By page 300 Haiti is left far behind; Albion and Lydia languish as prisoners aboard a Tripolitan xebec manned by ruffians in green turbans, and Lear has become U.S.

From Time Magazine Archive

Equivalent to our hermaphrodite, being a small Mediterranean vessel, between a xebec and a felucca.

From The Sailor's Word-Book An Alphabetical Digest of Nautical Terms, including Some More Especially Military and Scientific, but Useful to Seamen; as well as Archaisms of Early Voyagers, etc. by Belcher, Edward, Sir

That big fellow has got twelve on a side, the polacre has eight, and the xebec six, so between them they have fifty-two guns.

From Held Fast For England A Tale of the Siege of Gibraltar (1779-83) by Henty, G. A. (George Alfred)

S in was; c in suffice; and x in xebec.

From 1001 Questions and Answers on Orthography and Reading by Hathaway, B. A.

"Here," he said, pointing to the lateen-rigged xebec; "you see that felucca-boat?"

From Jim Davis by Masefield, John