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In the 17th–19th centuries, a frigate was a three-masted, fully rigged sailing ship, often carrying 30–40 guns in all. Smaller and faster than ships of the line (the principal vessels of naval warfare), frigates served as scouts or as escorts protecting merchant convoys; they also cruised the seas as merchant raiders themselves. In World War II, Britain revived the term frigate using it to describe escort ships equipped with sonar and depth charges, and used these ships to guard convoys from submarines. In the postwar decades, the frigate also adopted an antiaircraft role, adding radar and surface-to-air missiles. Modern frigates can sail at a speed of 30 knots and carry a crew of 200.
Examples of frigate in a Sentence
Ryan Chan, MSNBC Newsweek, 23 June 2025
Denmark is also moving to bolster its military presence in Greenland, some 1,500 miles from the Danish mainland, including with fighter jets to patrol the western coastline toward the US and a navy frigate, per Greenland’s parliament.
—Joseph Ataman, CNN Money, 15 June 2025
The main body of the expedition, traveling on the South African Navy frigate Transvaal, reached the island on January 22, 1962.
—The Editors, JSTOR Daily, 23 May 2025
What To Know The Joint Staff of the Japanese Defense Ministry reported that two Chinese naval vessels—the Type 055 destroyer CNS Lhasa and the Type 054A frigate CNS Weifang—transited the Osumi Strait, south of Japan's main island of Kyushu, between Wednesday and Thursday.
—Ryan Chan, MSNBC Newsweek, 6 June 2025
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Cite this Entry
“Frigate.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/frigate. Accessed 8 Jul. 2025.
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frigate
noun
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