A large sailing warship from the 16th-17th centuries that combined features of galleys and carracks, with both sails and oars.
From Italian galeazza, a blend of galea (galley) + the suffix -azza. The word represents a transitional ship design combining two earlier vessel types.
Galleasses were the high-tech warships of their day—one galleass in the 1588 Spanish Armada was so heavily armed and slow that it became a sitting duck for English ships, showing how naval technology evolved!
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