convoy

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun The act of accompanying or escorting, especially for protective purposes.
• noun An accompanying and protecting force, as of ships or troops.
• noun A group, as of ships or motor vehicles, traveling together with a protective escort or for safety or convenience.
• transitive verb To accompany, especially for protection; escort.

from The Century Dictionary.

• To accompany on the way for protection, either by sea or land; escort: as, ships of war convoyed the Jamaica fleet; troops convoyed the baggage-wagons.
• To accompany for safety or guidance; attend as an escort on a journey.
• To convey.
• noun Conveyance.
• noun The act of accompanying and escorting for protection or defense; escort.
• noun The protection afforded by an accompanying escort, as of troops, a vessel of war, etc.
• noun An escort or accompanying and protecting force; a convoying vessel, fleet, or troop.
• noun The ship, fleet, party, or thing conducted or escorted and protected; that which is convoyed: as, in the fog the frigate lost sight of her convoy.
• noun A friction-brake for carriages.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• transitive verb To accompany for protection, either by sea or land; to attend for protection; to escort.
• noun The act of attending for defense; the state of being so attended; protection; escort.
• noun A vessel or fleet, or a train or trains of wagons, employed in the transportation of munitions of war, money, subsistence, clothing, etc., and having an armed escort.
• noun A protection force accompanying ships, etc., on their way from place to place, by sea or land; an escort, for protection or guidance.
• noun obsolete Conveyance; means of transportation.
• noun A drag or brake applied to the wheels of a carriage, to check their velocity in going down a hill.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun nautical One or more merchant ships sailing in company to the same general destination under the protection of naval vessels
• noun A group of vehicles travelling together for safety, especially one with an escort
• verb transitive To escort a group of vehicles, and provide protection.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun a collection of merchant ships with an escort of warships
• verb escort in transit
• noun a procession of land vehicles traveling together
• noun the act of escorting while in transit