Etymology 1

Noun

1. A group of vessels or vehicles.
2. A number of vessels in company, especially war vessels; also, the collective naval force of a country, etc.
3. Any command of vessels exceeding a squadron in size, or a rear-admiral's command, composed of five sail-of-the-line, with any number of smaller vessels.

Etymology 2

Noun

1. A flood; a creek or inlet, a bay or estuary, a river subject to the tide.
2. A location, as on a navigable river, where barges are secured.

Etymology 3

Verb

1. To float.

   [Antony] "Our sever'd navy too,
   Have knit again, and fleet, threat'ning most sea-like." -- Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra

2. To pass over rapidly; to skim the surface of

   a ship that fleets the gulf

3. To hasten over; to cause to pass away lightly, or in mirth and joy

   And so through this dark world they fleet / Divided, till in death they meet; -- Percy Shelley, Rosalind and Helen.

4. To move up a rope, so as to haul to more advante; esp. to draw apart the blocks of a tackle.
5. To shift the position of dead-eyes when the shrouds are become too long.
6. To cause to slip down the barrel of a capstan or windlass, as a rope or chain.
7. To take the cream from; to skim.

Adjective

1. Swift in motion; moving with velocity; light and quick in going from place to place; nimble; fast.
   • 1908: Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows

     ...it was not till the afternoon that they came out on the high-road, their first high-road; and there disaster, fleet and unforeseen, sprang out on them--disaster momentous indeed to their expedition...

2. Light; superficially thin; not penetrating deep, as soil.