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The Collaborative International Dictionary
Trireme

Trireme \Tri"reme\, n. [L. triremis; tri- (see Tri-) + remus an oar, akin to E. row. See Row to propel with an oar.] (Class. Antiq.) An ancient galley or vessel with tree banks, or tiers, of oars.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
trireme

"ancient ship with three rows of oars," c.1600, from Latin triremis, from tri- "three" (see tri-) + remus "oar" (see row (v.)).

Wiktionary
trireme

n. (context history nautical archaic English) A galley with three banks of oars, one above the other, used mainly as a warship.

WordNet
trireme

n. ancient Greek or Roman galley or warship having three tiers of oars on each side

Wikipedia
Trireme

A trireme (; derived from Latin: trirēmis "with three banks of oars"; triērēs, literally "three-rower") was an ancient vessel and a type of galley that was used by the ancient maritime civilizations of the Mediterranean, especially the Phoenicians, ancient Greeks and Romans.

The trireme derives its name from its three rows of oars, manned with one man per oar. The early trireme was a development of the penteconter, an ancient warship with a single row of 30 oars on each side (i.e., a double-banked boat), and of the bireme (, diērēs), a warship with two banks of oars, of Phoenician origin. The word dieres does not appear until the Roman period. "It must be assumed the term pentekontor covered the two-level type". As a ship it was fast and agile, and it was the dominant warship in the Mediterranean during the 7th to 4th centuries BC, after which it was largely superseded by the larger quadriremes and quinqueremes. Triremes played a vital role in the Persian Wars, the creation of the Athenian maritime empire, and its downfall in the Peloponnesian War.

The term is sometimes also used to refer to medieval and early modern galleys with three files of oarsmen per side as triremes.

Usage examples of "trireme".

Like the bireme, trireme and quadrireme, it was much longer than it was broad in the beam, and was designed for no other purpose than to conduct war on the sea.

You have no cities nor no wealth: our cities are hives of humanity and our galleys, trireme and quadrireme, laden with all manner merchandise furrow the waters of the known globe.

Now at last he could see what battle stations really looked like: the piercing notes of the trumpets drawing men from every corner of Misenum, the rowboats ferrying the first of the sailors out to the huge triremes and quadriremes, the advance guard already boarding the warships and swarming over the decks, the high masts being raised, the oars readied.

In the harbour two ancient Falari triremes were moored-off the Malazan mole and a lone undermanned company of marines held the Imperial Docks.

Next there was a rush toward the afterpart of the trireme where I was in the cabin.

Had triremes carried a cargo, I might have thought the liburnian was raiding it.

Behind us the huge hulks of triremes and quinquiremes float high in the water, ready to take on cargo tomorrow.

The keel of the trireme smoked and squealed even though workmen had tallowed the grooved skidway before they began drawing the vessel down it.

They preferred taut, trim triremes and biremes, usually undecked, with two banks of oars in outriggers and very businesslike bronze beaks for ramming.

We head there, out past the triremes and biremes docked for loading and unloading.

Arab dhows and Gallic currachs, Greek triremes and balsa-wood PT boats, Canton delta lorcha and lateen-sailed Portuguese trawlers.

I can donate Rome ten triremes and five quinqueremes altogether, from what is here and what is elsewhere.

Caesar arrived in Abydus on the Ides of October, he found the promised fleet riding at anchor-two massive Pontic sixteeners, eight quinqueremes, ten triremes, and twenty well-built but not particularly warlike galleys.

Forty ships, half of them decked quinqueremes or triremes, delivered on the Kalends of November.

Sharina stood beside the flutist who blew time for the sailors launching the nearby trireme, even she could scarcely hear the notes over the bedlam of the fleet loading.