CONVOY

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does convoy mean? 

• CONVOY (noun)
  The noun CONVOY has 3 senses:

1. a procession of land vehicles traveling together

2. a collection of merchant ships with an escort of warships

3. the act of escorting while in transit

  Familiarity information: CONVOY used as a noun is uncommon.

• CONVOY (verb)
  The verb CONVOY has 1 sense:

1. escort in transit

  Familiarity information: CONVOY used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CONVOY (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A procession of land vehicles traveling together

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

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

procession (the group action of a collection of people or animals or vehicles moving ahead in more or less regular formation)

Derivation:

convoy (escort in transit)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A collection of merchant ships with an escort of warships

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

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

accumulation; aggregation; assemblage; collection (several things grouped together or considered as a whole)

Derivation:

convoy (escort in transit)

Sense 3

Meaning:

The act of escorting while in transit

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

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

accompaniment; escort (the act of accompanying someone or something in order to protect them)

Derivation:

convoy (escort in transit)

• CONVOY (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they convoy    ... he / she / it convoys   
Past simple: convoyed   
Past participle: convoyed   
-ing form: convoying   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Escort in transit

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Context example:

the warships convoyed the merchant ships across the Pacific

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

escort (accompany as an escort)

"Convoy" entails doing...:

protect (shield from danger, injury, destruction, or damage)

Sentence frames:

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

Derivation:

convoy (the act of escorting while in transit)

convoy (a collection of merchant ships with an escort of warships)

convoy (a procession of land vehicles traveling together)

 Context examples 

He may be stern; he may be exacting; he may be ambitious yet; but his is the sternness of the warrior Greatheart, who guards his pilgrim convoy from the onslaught of Apollyon.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

One day a gold convoy came down from Ballarat to Melbourne, and we lay in wait for it and attacked it.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

All this, with convoying, reconnoitring, and risking one’s own ship in order to gain a knowledge of the enemy’s movements, comes under the duties of the commander of a cruiser.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

U.S. electric car manufacturer Tesla is close to testing a long-haul self-driving electric truck that could drive in convoys following a lead vehicle.

(Tesla to Test Self-driving Electric Trucks, VOA News)

Years ago, in 1984, Paul Stamets had noticed a “continuous convoy of bees” traveling from a patch of mushrooms he was growing and his beehives.

(Mushroom Extract Could Help Save Bees from Virus, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

A convoy, as I can well remember, was coming up it that day, the timid flock of merchantmen in front; the frigates, like well-trained dogs, upon the skirts; and two burly drover line-of-battle ships rolling along behind them.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)