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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
Thomas G. Moukawsher, MSNBC Newsweek, 17 Apr. 2025
The Chinese frigate attempted to get closer to the waters, where the warships and aircraft from the three allied countries were undertaking maneuvers off the Scarborough Shoal, but it was warned by a Philippine frigate by radio and kept away.
—Arkansas Online, 29 Mar. 2025
The cost overruns and delays are very similar to ones that CRS and other agencies have found over the years involving littoral combat ships, cruisers and a new class of frigate.
—Gary Robbins, San Diego Union-Tribune, 28 Mar. 2025
The British Royal Navy's frigate also launched a Merlin helicopter from 814 Naval Air Squadron to ascertain valuable information aerially.
—Russel Honoré, Newsweek, 5 Mar. 2025
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Cite this Entry
“Frigate.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/frigate. Accessed 3 May. 2025.
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frigate
noun
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