the.com/cruise ship

means A large passenger ship that carries vacationers from port to port, built less for getting anywhere than for keeping them fed, entertained, and onboard spending money along the way.

from 'Ship' is ancient, Germanic in root, stable in meaning. 'Cruise' is the interesting half — it comes from Dutch 'kruisen,' meaning 'to cross,' related to 'kruis,' cross, because early cruising ships sailed back and forth, crisscrossing a patrol route rather than heading in one straight line. Dutch maritime vocabulary flooded into English in the 1600s as naval and trading fleets borrowed each other's terms, and 'cruise' settled in meaning a voyage with no fixed destination. It took until the 20th century for that aimlessness to be repackaged as a selling point — a trip whose entire purpose is the crisscrossing itself.