boat
/bəʊt
/noun
1A small vessel for travelling over water, propelled by oars, sails, or an engine: a fishing boat [as modifier]: a boat trip...
- This in turn causes surrounding air to rush into the sail and propel the boat further.
- Fu told Baja, as well as reporters, that the fishermen strayed into Philippine waters after their boat engine malfunctioned.
- He and many others landed jobs on in-shore mackerel boats, fishing tamer waters around the isle.
Synonyms
vessel, craft, watercraft, ship
literary keel, barque
1.1A vessel of any size, especially a large one: those newly arriving here by boat or plane...
- The fleet consisted of one large fish carrier, a medium purse-seine fishing vessel, three medium sized boats and four ocean going outriggers.
- Whether you arrive in a boat, a plane, or a cruise ship, you owe it to yourself to take a tour.
- How many would actually wear a life jacket if it were required at all times on all sizes of boats is a big unknown.
2A serving dish in the shape of a boat: a gravy boat...
- Graceful gravy boats in two sizes serve the whole crowd or provide individual service of gravy, cheese sauce, hot fudge and more.
- This week everyone gets a free Gravy Boat and after a few shipping problems everyone ends up with a dozen gravy boats after weeks of promises by the manager to set things straight.
verb [no object]
1Travel in a boat for pleasure: they boated through fjords...
- My children sit in large basins to go boating in the little pond,’ she said laughing.
- Our family suddenly decided that we should go boating.
- She also could no longer ride her horse or go boating or camping (which she had previously loved to do).
Synonyms
sail, yacht, go sailing, cruise, travel by boat
1.1 [with object and adverbial of direction] Transport (someone or something) in a boat: they boated the timber down the lake...
- So many estate agents have boated me around Venice, for instance, that I reckon I now know the Serenissima's darkest alleys better than the little red dwarf in Don't Look Now.
- They're finding ways to boat them out of the school through boats up onto the bridge but much of the city of course is still under very high levels of water.
1.2 [with object] (Of an angler) draw (a hooked fish) into a boat: he boated a 2 lb 14oz Dover sole...
- We moved a lot of fish in the first hour but only one was boated.
- On the second troll through I latched into a good fish and after a spirited fight we boated my first decent size Nile perch.
- Ravensthorpe regular John Caldwell and his boat partner Digby Lewis enjoyed an exciting session boating 20 fish between them.
Phrases
be in the same boat
off the boat
push the boat out
rock the boat
Derivatives
boatful
/ noun (plural boatfuls) ...- The mutual curiosity that exists between an adolescent right whale and a boatful of human observers makes whale-watching an activity of an entirely different nature than, say, bird-watching - or even people-watching.
- I don't consider it very responsible letting a boatful of inexperienced divers, many of them having completed fewer than 10 dives, loose on a wreck in 30m-plus with a screaming surface current.
- There's no need to board the boat armed with enormous flight cases full of equipment, only to have to assemble and dismantle it all on what could be a boatful of divers of no fixed experience.
Origin
Old English bāt, of Germanic origin.
Rhymes
- pianolist
- piano man
- piano nobile
- piano organ
- piano-organist
- piano part
- piano piano
- piano-player
- piano-playing
- piano quartet
- piano quintet
- piano rack
- piano rag
- piano reduction
- piano roll
- piano scarf
- piano school
- piano score
- piano shawl
- piano sonata
- piano stool
- piano-thumping
- piano-top
- piano trio
- piano tuner