sb. and a. Also 7 tryreme. [ad. L. trirēmis, f. tri- three + rēmus oar; cf. F. trirème (c. 1352 in Godef., Compl.).]
A. sb. An ancient galley (originally Greek, afterwards also Roman) with three ranks of oars one above another, used chiefly as a ship of war.
1601. Holland, Pliny, VII. lvi. I. 190. Aminocles the Corinthian built the first Trireme with three rowes of ores to a side.
1656. Blount, Glossogr., Trireme (trirēmis), a Galley wherein every oare had three men to it, or a Galley that hath three oares on every side.
1662. J. Bargrave, Pope Alex. VII. (1867), 118. They having then no such ships as we have now, their byremes and tryremes being but pittiful boats.
1776. Burney, Hist. Mus., I. 185. In the triremes, or vessels of three banks of oars, there was always a tibicen, or flute-player.
1868. Smith’s Dict. Gr. & Rom. Antiq. (ed. 7), 262/1. Triremes. were … divided into two classes: the one consisting of real men-of-war,… and the other of transports.
B. adj. Having three ranks of oars.
1697. Potter, Antiq. Greece, III. xiv. (1715), 124. Trireme, quadrireme, and quinquereme Gallies, which exceeded one another by a Bank of Oars.
1839. Thirlwall, Greece, VII. lvi. 165. A fleet was to be equipped of forty trireme galleys.
