Also 7 cruse, 7–9 cruize. [First in 17th c.; corresponding alike to Du. kruisen to cross, also since 17th c. to cruise, to sail crossing to and fro, ‘kruyssen op de Zee, to traverse and cross the seas’ (Hexham, 1678), f. kruis cross, and to Sp. and Pg. cruzar to cross, to cruise, F. croiser to cross, ‘croiser la mer to cruise up and down the Sea’ (Miège 1688). The word is thus ultimately identical with CROISE v. and CROSS v.; the current spelling with ui seems to be after Dutch; but the vowel sound is as in Sp. and Pg.]
intr. To sail to and fro over some part of the sea without making for a particular port or landing-place, on the look out for ships, for the protection of commerce in time of war, for plunder, or (in modern times) for pleasure.
1651. G. Carteret, in Nicholas Papers (Camden), I. 236. Van Trump is with his fleete crusinge about Silly.
1668. Etheredge, She wou’d if She cou’d, II. i. Two men-of-war that are cruising here to watch for prizes.
1726. Shelvocke, Voy. round World (1757), 8. Our first place of rendezvous … was the Canary Islands, where we were to cruize ten days for one another.
1748. Anson’s Voy., I. vii. 70. They were to cruize off that Island only ten days.
1823. W. Scoresby, Jrnl. Whale-Fishery, 120. A breeze of wind … under which we cruised the whole day, among floes and drift-ice, in search of whales.
1848. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., I. 573. Several English men of war were cruising in the Channel.
b. transf. and fig.
1698. Farquhar, Love & Bottle, I. Madam, how would you like to cruise about a little?
1742. Young, Nt. Th., viii. 993. Fancy still cruises, when poor sense is tir’d.
1879. Jefferies, Wild Life in S. Co., 5. Blackbirds will cruise along the whole length of a hedge before finding a bush to their liking.
c. trans. To sail to and fro over. rare.
1687. A. Lovell, trans. Bergerac’s Com. Hist., II. 17. Our Predecessors … a Thousand times had cruised the Ocean.
1890. S. Lane Poole, Barbary Corsairs, I. xii. 124. We cruised the waters of the Levant.
Hence Cruising vbl. sb. and ppl. a.
1690. Lond. Gaz., No. 2532/2. The Plimouth is come in from Cruising.
1720. De Foe, Capt. Singleton, xiii. (1840), 226. We pretended to carry on our cruising trade.
1839–40. W. Irving, Wolfert’s R. (1855), 219. The chimerical cruisings of Old Ponce de Leon in search of the Fountain of Youth.
1878. H. Pasha, in N. Amer. Rev., CXXVII. 381–2. Smokeless coal is also very requisite, otherwise a cruising-vessel can be seen frequently at from twenty to thirty miles’ distance..
