gunboat
noun
gun·boat ˈgən-ˌbōt 
: an armed ship of shallow draft
Example Sentences
Recent Examples on the Web There are graves for 35 Navy sailors killed in the boiler explosion aboard the gunboat Bennington in 1905. 
John Wilkens, San Diego Union-Tribune, 28 May 2022 The flotilla included an even older ship, a former Russian gunboat named the Politkofsky reduced into a coal barge. David Reamer, Anchorage Daily News, 15 May 2022 Despite the arrangements with the government and SPLA leaders, who were observing a cease-fire at the time, the expedition suffered a close call with a government gunboat in the flatwater of Sudan. Grayson Schaffer, Outside Online, 7 Feb. 2011 The Jersey gunboat stunt was necessary because the Garden of Eden promised by Johnson has already become a dense jungle of bureaucratic tedium. Fintan O’toole, The New York Review of Books, 13 May 2021 One Union gunboat, the USS Amanda, was grounded on the west point of Dog Island across St. George Sound near Apalachicola. Joe Mario Pedersen, orlandosentinel.com, 5 Apr. 2021 Not only can Neptune batteries strike farther and harder than any gunboat can do—they’re unsinkable, too. Follow me on Twitter. David Axe, Forbes, 19 Mar. 2021 In summer 1906 a Royal Navy torpedo gunboat, HMS Spanker, was steaming off the west coast of Scotland. Richard Davenport-hines, WSJ, 21 Aug. 2020 The sailors on the gunboats undertook a last-minute mission without proper training or equipment and were captured after straying into the waters surrounding an Iranian naval base on Farsi Island. T. Christian Miller, ProPublica, 17 Jan. 2020 See More
John Wilkens, San Diego Union-Tribune, 28 May 2022 The flotilla included an even older ship, a former Russian gunboat named the Politkofsky reduced into a coal barge. David Reamer, Anchorage Daily News, 15 May 2022 Despite the arrangements with the government and SPLA leaders, who were observing a cease-fire at the time, the expedition suffered a close call with a government gunboat in the flatwater of Sudan. Grayson Schaffer, Outside Online, 7 Feb. 2011 The Jersey gunboat stunt was necessary because the Garden of Eden promised by Johnson has already become a dense jungle of bureaucratic tedium. Fintan O’toole, The New York Review of Books, 13 May 2021 One Union gunboat, the USS Amanda, was grounded on the west point of Dog Island across St. George Sound near Apalachicola. Joe Mario Pedersen, orlandosentinel.com, 5 Apr. 2021 Not only can Neptune batteries strike farther and harder than any gunboat can do—they’re unsinkable, too. Follow me on Twitter. David Axe, Forbes, 19 Mar. 2021 In summer 1906 a Royal Navy torpedo gunboat, HMS Spanker, was steaming off the west coast of Scotland. Richard Davenport-hines, WSJ, 21 Aug. 2020 The sailors on the gunboats undertook a last-minute mission without proper training or equipment and were captured after straying into the waters surrounding an Iranian naval base on Farsi Island. T. Christian Miller, ProPublica, 17 Jan. 2020 See More Word History
First Known Use
1777, in the meaning defined above
Phrases Containing gunboat
Kids Definition
gunboat
noun
gun·boat ˈgən-ˌbōt
: a small armed ship for use near a coast