Library / English Dictionary

CRUISE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

An ocean trip taken for pleasure

Synonyms:

cruise; sail

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Hypernyms ("cruise" is a kind of...):

ocean trip; voyage (an act of traveling by water)

Derivation:

cruise (sail or travel about for pleasure, relaxation, or sightseeing)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Sail or travel about for pleasure, relaxation, or sightseeing

Example:

We were cruising in the Caribbean

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Hypernyms (to "cruise" is one way to...):

navigate; sail; voyage (travel on water propelled by wind or by other means)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s somebody PP

Derivation:

cruise (an ocean trip taken for pleasure)

cruiser (a large motorboat that has a cabin and plumbing and other conveniences necessary for living on board)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Travel at a moderate speed

Example:

Please keep your seat belt fastened while the plane is reaching cruising altitude

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Hypernyms (to "cruise" is one way to...):

go; locomote; move; travel (change location; move, travel, or proceed, also metaphorically)

Domain category:

air; air travel; aviation (travel via aircraft)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "cruise"):

stooge (cruise in slow or routine flights)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s PP

Sentence example:

The cars cruise down the avenue

Derivation:

cruiser (a car in which policemen cruise the streets; equipped with radiotelephonic communications to headquarters)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Drive around aimlessly but ostentatiously and at leisure

Example:

She cruised the neighborhood in her new convertible

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Hypernyms (to "cruise" is one way to...):

journey; travel (travel upon or across)

Domain category:

driving (the act of controlling and steering the movement of a vehicle or animal)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Sentence example:

They cruise the countryside

Sense 4

Meaning:

Look for a sexual partner in a public place

Example:

The men were cruising the park

Classified under:

Verbs of seeing, hearing, feeling

Hypernyms (to "cruise" is one way to...):

look; search (search or seek)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s something

Credits

 Context examples: 

A/2017 U1 came from the direction of the constellation Lyra, cruising through interstellar space at a brisk clip of 15.8 miles (25.5 kilometers) per second.

(Small Asteroid or Comet 'Visits' from Beyond the Solar System, NASA)

The study combined data from FIREBIRD II, which cruises at a height of 310 miles above Earth, and from one of the two Van Allen Probes, which travel in a wide orbit high above the planet.

(FIREBIRD II and NASA Mission Locate Whistling Space Electrons’ Origins, NASA)

Nearly two miles deep in the Pacific Ocean and 100 miles off the coast of Costa Rica, scientists on two oceanographic cruises used subsea vehicles to explore the Dorado Outcrop, a rocky patch of seafloor formed of cooled and hardened lava from an underwater volcano.

(Giant group of octopus moms discovered in the deep sea, National Science Foundation)

I don't like this cruise; I don't like the men; and I don't like my officer.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

Admiral Cornwallis is ordered out of Cawsand Bay to cruise off Ushant.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

A sailor comes aft to take mate’s place, cabin-boy goes for’ard to take sailor’s place, and you take the cabin-boy’s place, sign the articles for the cruise, twenty dollars per month and found.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

I should not wonder if you had your orders to-morrow: but you cannot sail with this wind, if you are to cruise to the westward; and Captain Walsh thinks you will certainly have a cruise to the westward, with the Elephant.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

First, you've made a hash of this cruise—you'll be a bold man to say no to that.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

The six boats, spreading out fan-wise from the schooner until the first weather boat and the last lee boat were anywhere from ten to twenty miles apart, cruised along a straight course over the sea till nightfall or bad weather drove them in.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

Well, gentlemen, are you determined to go on this cruise?

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)