Also written shebeck, and now usually XEBEC. [a. F. chebec; in OF. chabec, Sp. jabeque, OSp. xabeque, -veque, Pg. xabeco, -veco, OPg. enxabeque, It. sciabecco, zambecco, stambecco, mod.Arab. shabbāk, shobbāk, Turkish sunbekī (Meninski, 1680). Ulterior origin uncertain. (Jal shows that the vessel was originally a fishing boat.)]
A small three-masted vessel, used in the Mediterranean, a XEBEC; it resembles the felucca, but is rigged with square besides lateen-sails.
1762. trans. Busching’s Syst. Geog., II. 262. It consists … of twenty-six men of war, thirteen frigates, two packet-boats, eight chebecks.
1773. Brydone, Sicily (1775), I. 318. Three of their [Turks’] chebecks ran into a small harbour … and carried off six merchant-ships.
1806. A. Duncan, Nelson, 158. Twelve chebecks, each of two 24-pounders.
1858. Simmonds, Dict. Comm. Chebec, a kind of naval craft.
