razee

From French vaisseau rasé, from raser (“to rase, to cut down ships”). See raze and rase (verbs).

razee (plural razees)

1. (nautical) An armed ship with its upper deck cut away, and thus reduced to the next inferior rate, such as a seventy-four cut down to a frigate.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Totten to this entry?)

razee (third-person singular simple present razees, present participle razeeing, simple past and past participle razeed)

1. (nautical) To cut (a ship) down to a smaller number of decks, and thus to an inferior rate or class.
2. (figuratively) To trim or abridge by cutting off parts.

   to razee a book, or an article

   • 1851, Herman Melville, Moby Dick, chapter 36

     "Aye, aye! it was that accursed white whale that razeed me; made a poor pegging lubber of me for ever and a day!"

• zeera