Now only local. Forms: 1 fléot(e, 5–9 flete, 6–7 fleet(t)e, 6 flett, 9 flet, 6– fleet. [OE. fléot str. masc. (also fléote wk. fem. or fléota wk. masc.), corresp. to OFr. flêt, MDu. vliet masc., neut. (mod.Du. vliet masc.), MLG. vlêt, MHG. vlieȝ (early mod.Ger. fliesz) masc., ON. fljót neut.; f. OTeut. *fleut-an; see FLEET v.1]
1. A place where water flows; an arm of the sea; a creek, inlet, run of water.
c. 893. K. Ælfred, Oros., I. i. § 27. Ispania land is þry-scyte, and eall mid fleote utan ymbhæfd.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 166/2. Flete, there water cometh and goth, fleta.
1530. Palsgr., 221/1. Flete where water cometh, breche.
1622. Drayton, Poly-olb., xxiii. 191.
| As likewise to the Sea, vpon the lower ground, | |
| With Mosses, Fleets, and Fells, she showes most wild and rough, | |
| Whose Turfe, and square cut Peat, is fuell good ynough. |
1677. Yarranton, Eng. Improv., 108. I have beat my Noddle a good while, considering of the reasons, why the Mills by Wind, should make the Cloth look the more fine, and feel more soft, than if Fulled with our Mills by the open fleet (or Fullers).
1703. S. Dale, in Phil. Trans., XXV. 1575/2. Certain remains of the old Channel, which the neighbouring Inhabitants still call Fleets.
1736. J. Lewis, Hist. Isle of Tenet (ed. 2), 78. A certain Abbat, his Predecessor, made there a certain Flete, in his own proper Soil, through which little Boats used to come to the aforesaid Town.
1827. Sporting Mag., XXI. Dec., 115/1. I have taken both the eggs and young herons from the very numerous nests formed amongst the reeds, by the side of the Fleets.
1891. A. J. Foster, The Ouse, 214. Several narrow creeks running up into the heart of the town [King’s Lynn]. These are called ‘fleets,’ from the old Saxon fleot, and give the place somewhat of a Dutch appearance.
b. (from the use of creeks in drainage; see supra 1891): A drain, a sewer. Obs. exc. dial.
1583. Sewers Inquisition in Lincoln (1851), 8. A new & sufficient head like unto Stockwth newfleet shall [be] made and lade there.
1773. Burstwick Inclos. Act, 22. The fleet or sewer.
1877. N. W. Linc. Gloss., Fleet, a kind of drain.
c. Comb.: fleet-dyke, -hole (see quots.).
1839. Stonehouse, Axholme, 263. The west channel would then naturally warp up, and leave what is usually termed in such cases a fleet hole.
1858. Simmonds, Dict. Trade, Fleet-dyke, an embankment for preventing inundation.
1877. N. W. Linc. Gloss., Fleet-hole, a hole or hollow left by a drain having been diverted, or a bank having broken, and washed away the soil.
2. The Fleet: a run of water, flowing into the Thames between Ludgate Hill and Fleet Street, now a covered sewer; called also Fleet ditch; hence, the prison which stood near it.
1530. Palsgr., 201/1. Flete a prisone for gentylmen, consergerie.
1563–83. Foxe, A. & M., 1191/2. Grafton was sent to the Fleet, and there remained six weeks, and before he came out, was bound, in three hundred pounds, that he should neither sell, nor imprint, nor cause to be imprinted, any more Bibles, until the king and the clergy should agree upon a translation.
1613. Letter, in Burn, Fleet Registers (1833), 5. An ancyentt acquayntance of yrs and myne is yesterday maryed in the Fleette.
1712. Arbuthnot, John Bull, II. iv. Hold out only one Term longer, and I’ll warrant you before the next, we shall have him in the Fleet.
1761. A. Murphy (title), Ode to the Naiads of Fleet-ditch.
1837. Dickens, Pickw., xl. Mr. Pickwick alighted at the gate of the Fleet.
b. attrib.: Fleet books, the records of the marriages celebrated in the Fleet Prison. Fleet chapel, the place where the marriage ceremonies were performed. Fleet marriage, one performed clandestinely by a Fleet parson in the Fleet; also Fleet-Street marriage. Fleet parson, one of a number of disreputable clergymen who were to be found in and about the Fleet ready to perform clandestine marriages. Fleet register = Fleet book.
1719. Original Weekly Jrnl., 26 Sept., in Burn, Fleet Registers (1833), 7. Mrs. Ann Leigh … having been decoyed away from her friends in Buckinghamshire, and married at the Fleet chapel against her consent.
1732. Grub Street Jrnl., 20 July (ibid.). A Fleet parson was convicted … of forty-three oaths. Ibid. (1736), 6. This advice cannot be taken by those that are concerned in ye Fleet marriages. Ibid. (c. 1747), (title), A Fleet Wedding.
1833. Burn, Fleet Registers, 5. Upon referring to the dates of the Fleet Registers, it will be found that (with one exception) they commence about the period of the Order of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners.
1861. Cornh. Mag., III. June, 688. A worthy woman whose daughter has been entrapped into a Fleet Street marriage, and who is inclined to confide to you her ‘peck of troubles.’
