📚 Xebec, noun. 🔉 /ˈziːbɛk/ 🇬🇧 ❓ Definition (historical): A small three-masted Mediterranean sailing ship with lateen and square sails. ❗️ Examples: 1. After a week or so of smooth sailing, they were becoming accustomed to life aboard the hundred-and-thirty foot long xebec. 2. The xebec, as in most ship types, possesses origins difficult to trace. 3. Captain John Frankford, commanding the 18-gun privateer Belvedere out of Philadelphia, had several spirited engagements with French xebecs and privateers off the Spanish coast in the spring of 1799 during the Quasi-War with France. 4. The Forte, however, having received intelligence that no other British ship than the Seahorse was cruising in the Archipelago, despatched a squadron, composed of two frigates, two corvette, two mortar-vessels, and some xebecs, upon the service in view. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🌀 @cambridge_dic