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

See Examples For:

xebec

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

The boat took in a dozen or so, and then, being dangerously overcrowded, left the rest to their fate, and headed back for the xebec.

From Sir John Constantine Memoirs of His Adventures At Home and Abroad and Particularly in the Island of Corsica: Beginning with the Year 1756 by Quiller-Couch, Arthur Thomas, 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)

To the initial X of foreign words, we always give the simple sound of Z; as in Xerxes, xebec.

From The Grammar of English Grammars by Brown, Goold

The Gauntlet—a flattish-bottomed ship—footed it well before the wind, but not to compare with the xebec, which indeed was little more than a long open boat.

From Sir John Constantine Memoirs of His Adventures At Home and Abroad and Particularly in the Island of Corsica: Beginning with the Year 1756 by Quiller-Couch, Arthur Thomas, Sir