Did you know?
In the 17th–19th centuries, a frigate was a three-masted, fully rigged sailing ship, often carrying 30–40 guns in all. Smaller and faster than ships of the line (the principal vessels of naval warfare), frigates served as scouts or as escorts protecting merchant convoys; they also cruised the seas as merchant raiders themselves. In World War II, Britain revived the term frigate using it to describe escort ships equipped with sonar and depth charges, and used these ships to guard convoys from submarines. In the postwar decades, the frigate also adopted an antiaircraft role, adding radar and surface-to-air missiles. Modern frigates can sail at a speed of 30 knots and carry a crew of 200.
Examples of frigate in a Sentence
Ryan Chan, MSNBC Newsweek, 20 June 2025
There are about 3,600 bunkers on Sazan, armored cement mushrooms emerging from the vegetation or perched on mountaintops like lookouts against phantom American aircraft carriers or Soviet frigates.
—Marzio Mian, The Dial, 12 June 2025
In 1699, a French frigate called the Maurepas sank in the remote San Blas Islands off the coast of Panama, taking a massive trove of treasure down with it.
—Skye Sherman, Travel + Leisure, 25 June 2025
When Iran mined the strait in 1988, a mine crippled a U.S. Navy frigate, the Samuel B. Roberts.
—Nicholas D. Kristof, Mercury News, 24 June 2025
See All Example Sentences for frigate
Cite this Entry
“Frigate.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/frigate. Accessed 21 Jul. 2025.
Copy CitationKids Definition
frigate
noun
Share