navy

From Middle English nave, navye, from Anglo-Norman, Old French navie, from Latin nāvigia < nāvigium, from Latin nāvigō, nāvis (“boat”), from Proto-Indo-European *néh₂us. Compare Ancient Greek ναῦς (naûs, “ship”), Persian ناو (nâv, “boat, warship”), Sanskrit नाव (nāva, “ship”), Old English nōwend (“mariner, sailor”).

Displaced native Old English sċiphere (literally “ship army”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈneɪvi/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪvi

navy (countable and uncountable, plural navies)

1. (countable) A country's entire maritime military force, including ships and personnel.
   • 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter X, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:

     The skipper Mr. Cooke had hired at Far Harbor was a God-fearing man with a luke warm interest in his new billet and employer, and had only been prevailed upon to take charge of the yacht after the offer of an emolument equal to half a year's sea pay of an ensign in the navy.

   People who get seasick easily shouldn't join the navy.

2. (countable) A governmental department in charge of a country's maritime military force.
3. (archaic, countable) Any fleet of maritime vessels, and especially the entire fleet of any particular nationality, including vessels that are commercial, military, or both.

   Synonym: (archaic) marine

4. (countable and uncountable) A dark blue colour, usually called navy blue.

   navy:  

• (fleet of any particular nationality): merchant navy

navy (comparative more navy, superlative most navy)

1. Having the dark blue colour of navy blue.
   • 2006, Samantha Hunt, The Seas: A Novel, page 57:

     The cover is as navy as a bruise.

   • 2006, Carol Marinelli, Taken for His Pleasure, page 26:

     The morning shadow on his chin was almost as navy as his heavy-lidded eyes, his cheekbones exquisitely sculptured in his haughty face.

2. (military) Belonging to the navy; typical of the navy.
   • 1943, Fletcher Pratt, The Navy has wings, page 167:

     […] there are chess ships and checker ships and those where acey-deucey is almost the only game, the sailors' own improved version of backgammon. Fliers from the seacoast of Iowa, anxious to be as navy as the rest, are usually the first to pick it up.

   • 1993, Robert A. Frezza, McLendon's Syndrome, page 299:

     Lieutenant Lindquist is navy through and through. I know she doesn't want to get out. Now, I know there's no way you can assign her to a navy ship, but there has to be something the navy can give her to keep her in space.

   • 1994, Harry Carey, Company of heroes: my life as an actor in the John Ford stock company, page 76:

     It was not what you would picture as a typical meeting with a naval officer. In fact, it was about as navy as an Abbott and Costello movie.

   • 2003, Jedwin Smith, Fatal treasure: greed and death, emeralds and gold, page 88:

     He was navy through and through; no-nonsense, humorless, and all spit and polish—every hair in its place, every thought gleaned from the manual compiled by brilliant sea dogs of long ago.

   • 2003, Edwin Palmer Hoyt, Thomas H Moorer, The Men of the Gambier Bay: The Amazing True Story, page 21:

     Goodwin was navy through and through.

• (blues) blue; Alice blue, aqua, aquamarine, azure, baby blue, beryl, bice, bice blue, blue green, blue violet, blueberry, cadet blue, Cambridge blue, cerulean, cobalt blue, Copenhagen blue, cornflower, cornflower blue, cyan, dark blue, Dodger blue, duck-egg blue, eggshell blue, electric blue, gentian blue, ice blue, lapis lazuli, light blue, lovat, mazarine, midnight blue, navy, Nile blue, Oxford blue, peacock blue, petrol blue, powder blue, Prussian blue, robin's-egg blue, royal blue, sapphire, saxe blue, slate blue, sky blue, teal, turquoise, ultramarine, Wedgwood blue, zaffre ^{(Category: en:Blues)}

Unadapted borrowing from English navy. See also the related navío.

• IPA^(key): /ˈneibi/ [ˈnei̯.β̞i]
• Rhymes: -eibi

navy m (uncountable)

1. navy (marine forces)

According to Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) prescriptions, unadapted foreign words should be written in italics in a text printed in roman type, and vice versa, and in quotation marks in a manuscript text or when italics are not available. In practice, this RAE prescription is not always followed.