The combination of ship (mostly warship) and waifu (Japanese pronounciation of "wife" in English), the latter was mostly used to refer anime girls (2D girls). Use affectionately or jokingly by users to address their (mostly) virtual warships in online games or media.

As the ship is usually referred to as a female, plus the online card game Kantai Collection (KanColle for short) turned the warships into cute girls (moe anthropomorphism) donned with warship equipment to fight against the enemy, many players use shipfu to make a slight difference between a 2D shipgirl (known as KanMusu) and a 2D anime girl.

Also, the word shipfu could also refer to virtual ship without any anthropomorphism in some online naval battle game like World of Warships, though this action often leads to discrimination by some players who did not want their ships to be turned into girl or to be femininization in that way.
A: Why did someone call warships shipfu?
B: Because they love their ships, they want their ships to be cute girls, they want to marry their ships. You can do it in Kantai Collection.
by the crazy tanker June 28, 2017
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a Shipfu is a Waifu but a ship. Most Shipfus come from Kancolle. the land of shit and weebs.
check him out. i heard he has a Shipfu. what a total weeb and loser.

Hey. i heard john got a new Shipfu. when would he grow up and leave his men cave?
by H44 May 13, 2015
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