-ship

suff.

a. Quality, state, or condition: scholarship.

b. Something that shows or possesses a quality, state, or condition: courtship.

2. Rank, status, or office: professorship.

3. Art, skill, or craft: penmanship.

4. A collective body: readership.

[Middle English, from Old English -scipe.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

-ship

suffix forming nouns

1. indicating state or condition: fellowship.

2. indicating rank, office, or position: lordship.

3. indicating craft or skill: horsemanship; workmanship; scholarship.

[Old English -scipe; compare shape]

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

ship

(ʃɪp)

n., v. shipped, ship•ping. n.

1. a vessel, esp. a large oceangoing one propelled by sails or engines.

2. a sailing vessel square-rigged on all of three or more masts, having jibs, staysails, and a spanker on the aftermost mast.

3. the crew and passengers of a vessel.

4. an airship, airplane, or spacecraft.

v.t.

5. to send or transport by ship, rail, truck, plane, etc.

6. to take in (water) over the side, as a vessel does when waves break over it.

7. to bring into a ship or boat: Ship the anchor.

8. to engage (a person) for service on a ship.

9. to fix in a ship or boat in the proper place for use: Ship the oars.

10. to send away: We shipped the kids off to camp.

v.i.

11. to go on board or travel by ship; embark.

12. to engage to serve on a ship.

13. ship out,

a. to leave, esp. for another country or assignment.

b. to send away, esp. to another country or assignment.

c. to quit, resign, or be fired from a job: Shape up or ship out!

14. ship over, to reenlist, esp. in the navy.

Idioms:

1. run a tight ship, to exercise strict control over a company, organization, or the like.

2. when or if one's ship comes in or home, when or if one finally becomes wealthy.

[before 900; (n.) Middle English; Old English scip, c. Old Frisian, Old Saxon, Old Norse, Gothic skip, Old High German scif]

ship′less, adj.

-ship

a noun-forming suffix denoting state or condition, usu. added to personal nouns: friendship; kinship; statesmanship.

[Middle English, Old English -scipe; akin to shape; c. dial. Frisian, dial. Dutch schip]