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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
frigate
noun
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Newall, 27, was arrested by a Royal Navy frigate sailing his yacht off Casablanca.
▪ Perhaps the captain of the frigate was a touch too eager.
▪ The arrival of the Transport Secretary was further postponed by a slow-moving statement over frigate orders.
▪ The larger part is made up by the host of specialised equipments that such a frigate contains.
▪ The Nimitz will be accompanied by five other warships, including a guided-missile cruiser, two destroyers and a frigate.
▪ The section on frigates and destroyers put their number at 65.
▪ Within that frigate were seeds of destruction that would soon burst forth.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Frigate

Frigate \Frig"ate\, n. [F. fr['e]gate, It. fregata, prob. contracted fr. L. fabricata something constructed or built. See Fabricate.]

  1. Originally, a vessel of the Mediterranean propelled by sails and by oars. The French, about 1650, transferred the name to larger vessels, and by 1750 it had been appropriated for a class of war vessels intermediate between corvettes and ships of the line. Frigates, from about 1750 to 1850, had one full battery deck and, often, a spar deck with a lighter battery. They carried sometimes as many as fifty guns. After the application of steam to navigation steam frigates of largely increased size and power were built, and formed the main part of the navies of the world till about 1870, when the introduction of ironclads superseded them. [Formerly spelled frigat and friggot.]

  2. Any small vessel on the water. [Obs.]
    --Spenser.

    Frigate bird (Zo["o]l.), a web-footed rapacious bird, of the genus Fregata; -- called also man-of-war bird, and frigate pelican. Two species are known; that of the Southern United States and West Indies is F. aquila. They are remarkable for their long wings and powerful flight. Their food consists of fish which they obtain by robbing gulls, terns, and other birds, of their prey. They are related to the pelicans.

    Frigate mackerel (Zo["o]l.), an oceanic fish ( Auxis Rochei) of little or no value as food, often very abundant off the coast of the United States.

    Frigate pelican. (Zo["o]l.) Same as Frigate bird.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
frigate

1580s, from Middle French frégate (1520s), from Italian fregata (Neapolitan fregate), which with many names for types of sea vessels is of unknown origin. It is common to the Mediterranean languages (Spanish, Portuguese, Catalan fragata). Originally a small, swift vessel; the word was applied to progressively larger types over the years.\n\n[A] light nimble vessel built for speed; employed in particular for the gleaning of intelligence and the protection and assault of trade-routes. In battle the frigates took station on the disengaged side of the fleet, where they repeated signals, sped on messages, and succoured the distressed.

[Sir Geoffrey Callender, "Sea Passages," 1943]

\nIn the old sailing navy usually they carried guns on a raised quarter-deck and forecastle, hence frigate-built (1650s) of a vessel having the quarter-deck and forecastle raised above the main-deck.
Wiktionary
frigate

n. 1 (context nautical English) An obsolete type of sailing warship with a single continuous gun deck, typically used for patrolling, blockading, etc, but not in line of battle. 2 (context nautical English) A 19th c. type of warship combining sail and steam propulsion, typically of ironclad timber construction, supplementing and superseding sailing ships of the battle line until made obsolete by the development of the solely steam-propelled iron battleship. 3 (context nautical English) A modern type of warship, smaller than a destroyer, originally (WWII) introduced as an anti-submarine vessel but now general purpose.

WordNet
frigate
  1. n. a medium size square-rigged warship of the 18th and 19th centuries

  2. a United States warship larger than a destroyer and smaller than a cruiser

Wikipedia
Frigate

A frigate is any of several types of warship, the term having been used for ships of various sizes and roles over the last few centuries.

In the 17th century, this term was used for any warship built for speed and maneuverability, the description often used being "frigate-built". These could be warships carrying their principal batteries of carriage-mounted guns on a single deck or on two decks (with further smaller carriage-mounted guns usually carried on the forecastle and quarterdeck of the vessel). The term was generally used for ships too small to stand in the line of battle, although early line-of-battle ships were frequently referred to as frigates when they were built for speed.

In the 18th century, the term referred to ships that were usually as long as a ship of the line and were square-rigged on all three masts ( full rigged), but were faster and with lighter armament, used for patrolling and escort. In the definition adopted by the British Admiralty, they were rated ships of at least 28 guns, carrying their principal armaments upon a single continuous deck — the upper deck — while ships of the line possessed two or more continuous decks bearing batteries of guns.

In the late 19th century (beginning about 1858 with the construction of prototypes by the British and French navies), the armoured frigate was a type of ironclad warship that for a time was the most powerful type of vessel afloat. The term "frigate" was used because such ships still mounted their principal armaments on a single continuous upper deck. The later 19th-century battleship thus developed from the frigate rather than from the ship of the line.

In modern navies, frigates are used to protect other warships and merchant-marine ships, especially as anti-submarine warfare (ASW) combatants for amphibious expeditionary forces, underway replenishment groups, and merchant convoys. Ship classes dubbed "frigates" have also more closely resembled corvettes, destroyers, cruisers, and even battleships. The rank " frigate captain" derives from the name of this type of ship.

Frigate (album)

Frigate is the fourteenth studio album by the Canadian rock band April Wine, released in 1994 (see 1994 in music).

The album was re-released in 2007 under its original name. Note that "Tonight Is a Wonderful Time to Fall in Love" is a re-work of the single from an earlier album, 1975's Stand Back. Frigate also included two cover songs: Willie Dixon's " I Just Want to Make Love to You", and Steve Winwood's " I'm A Man".

The ship featured on the album cover is HMCS Antigonish (K661).

Usage examples of "frigate".

Captain Toner has aboard a frigate called Endymion someone that I esteem very highly, along with forty other men he took from my ship off the coast of Brittany.

It would have been a bad notion to put him aboard one of those frigates.

Friendly One as well as the frigate aft on the seaward side of the pier.

Lennox lifted his head up over the starboard aft lip of the sail, looking for the position of the Jianghu fast frigate, which was nowhere in sight.

Near the centre of the formation a zone of space the size of a quark warped to an alarming degree as its mass leapt towards infinity, and the first frigate emerged.

Above eighty gun-boats and bomb-ketches were to second the operations of the floating batteries, together with a multitude of frigates and smaller vessels, while the combined fleets of France and Spain amounting to fifty sail of the line, were to cover and support the attack.

I will need the services of that fine naval frigate anchored in the bay, and three companies of your musketeers with Colonel Schreuder here to command them.

They pushed the boat out into the channel and as their feet lost the bottom they began to swim and steered her for the anchored frigate.

Furthermore, the Iphigenia had sent an aviso with word that the three frigates in Port-Louis were ready for sea, and the Sirius was extremely busy, preparing her return.

Commander Ben Badr looked up and caught the eye of the Ayatollah, who nodded his assent for the frigate CO to speak.

The battle between the American frigate Boston and the French corvette Berceau was one of the most gallant of the struggle, the Berceau fighting until resistance was hopeless.

If Elliot sent frigates against the Chinese, their superior strength and weapons would assure victory, but not before the Bogue ran red with both Chinese and English blood.

Then the frigate turned tail, fired up its Bussard drives, and vanished into slow time.

The hairy, brutish hawsers and cablets allowed him to carry sail that would otherwise tear the masts out of the ship, and this had won the frigate many a charming prize before now, or had allowed her to run clear away from much superior force.

I have the honour to acquaint you, that the sloop I have the honour to command, after a mutual chase and a warm action, has captured a Spanish xebec frigate of 32 guns, 22 long twelve-pounders, 8 nines, and 2 heavy carronades, viz, the Cacafuego, commanded by Don Martin de Langara, manned by 319 officers, seamen and marines.