figurative and extended uses denoting a person or thing regarded as inferior or of little importance. A small or flimsy boat, esp. one considered…

transferred. Applied to a boat, as a hyperbolical expression for extreme lightness and fragility. (†In the 17th cent. apparently used as the actual…

A small shallow boat, canoe, etc., esp. when considered likely to sink or be overturned or broken apart in storms, rough waters, etc. Cf. compounds, c…

attributive used in, or pertaining to, the washing of the deck of a ship; wash-deck tub (slang), a small boat, with decks easily washed by the sea.