gun-boatgunboatn.
/ˈɡʌnbəʊt/, U.S. /ˈɡənˌboʊt/ 1. attributive.1804 J. Larwood No Gun Boats 25 A forest of Gun~boat-masts.1804 J. Larwood No Gun Boats 40 This is the reception destined for the Gun Boat Armada.1874 G. Bancroft Footpr. of Time xxvi. 664 A second unsuccessful gunboat attack.
a. A boat or small vessel of light draft carrying one or more guns of large calibre; any small vessel fitted for carrying guns.
ΘΚΠ
society > travel > travel by water > vessel, ship, or boat > war vessel > [noun] > gunboat
artillery boat1759
gun-boat1793
gun-vessel1800
gun-brig1801
schooner-gun-vessel1806
gunship1841
turret-ship1862
turret-vessel1862
pelter1890
1793 Craufurd in Ld. Auckland's Corr. (1862) III. 117 The enemy were masters of the shore, and entirely commanded it by their gunboats.
1797 Ld. Nelson in Dispatches & Lett. (1845) II. 404 The Spaniards having sent out a great number of Mortar Gun-boats and armed Launches.
1836 F. Marryat Mr. Midshipman Easy I. xiii. 211 A small convoy..under the protection of two gun-boats.
1880 J. McCarthy Hist. our Own Times III. xlii. 264 Four of the gunboats were almost immediately disabled.
b. gunboat diplomacy n. diplomacy supported by the use, or threatened use, of military force.
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society > authority > rule or government > politics > international politics or relations > diplomacy > [noun] > types of
public diplomacy1856
gunboat diplomacy1927
total diplomacy1935
sputnik diplomacy1957
shuttle diplomacy1974
1927 Proc. U.S. Naval Inst. Feb. 234 It has been said that the days of ‘gunboat diplomacy’ in China are over.
1960 Daily Tel. 2 Sept. 12/2 ‘Gun-boat’ diplomacy has long and properly disappeared.
1961 Daily Tel. 6 July 1 The Iraqi delegate called the British action in Kuwait ‘gunboat diplomacy at its worst’.
1969 Times 3 Mar. 23/4 (advt.) There's nothing to regret about the passing of gunboat diplomacy.
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2. U.S. regional. Coal Mining. ‘A self-dumping box on wheels, used for raising coal on slopes, and holding three or four tons of coal’ ( Cent. Dict.).
3. Usually in plural. Large shoes or feet. U.S. slang.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > the body > external parts of body > limb > extremities > foot > [noun]
footOE
heelOE
toec1290
pettitoes1590
goers1612
hoofa1616
fetlock1645
stamper1652
fetterlock1674
pedestal1695
trotter1755
footsie1762
dew-beaters1811
pedal1838
mud-hook1850
tootsy1854
tootsicum1860
gun-boat1870
mundowie1880
plate of meat1887
trilby1895
dog1913
puppies1922
the world > textiles and clothing > clothing > types or styles of clothing > footwear > shoe or boot > shoe > [noun] > types of > overshoe
galosh1373
overshoe1770
gumshoe1841
gun-boat1870
bootee1920
1870 D. Macrae Americans at Home I. 68 Most of the people wear rubbers over their boots—gunboats as they sometimes call them from their size.
1919 Dial. Notes 5 69 Gunboats, the feet. ‘Keep your gunboats out of my way.’
1932 J. T. Farrell Young Lonigan ii. 56 Tracey nodded, as he shifted his weight from the right to the left gunboat.
1939 Amer. Speech 14 90 Gun boats, big shoes.
1951 in H. Wentworth & S. B. Flexner Dict. Amer. Slang (1960) 235 He brought some of the [size 14 EE] gunboats with him from the states, but they wore out.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1900; most recently modified version published online December 2019).
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n.1793