Boat
Pronunciation
- RP enPR: bÅt, IPA: /bəʊt/
- Rhymes: -əʊt
- GenAm enPR: bÅt, IPA: /boÊŠt/
- Rhymes: -oÊŠt
Origin
From Middle English boot, bot, boet, boyt ("boat"), from Old English bÄt ("boat"), from Proto-Germanic *baitaz, *baitÄ… ("boat, small ship"), from Proto-Indo-European *bheid- ("to break, split"). Cognate with Old Norse beit ("boat").
Old Norse bÄtr (whence Icelandic bátur, Norwegian bÃ¥t), Dutch boot, German Boot, Occitan batèl and French bateau are all ultimately borrowings from the Old English word.
Full definition of boat
Noun
boat
(plural boats)- A craft used for transportation of goods, fishing, racing, recreational cruising, or military use on or in the water, propelled by oars or outboard motor or inboard motor or by wind.
- 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, Mr. Pratt's Patients Chapter 8, Philander went into the next room...and came back with a salt mackerel.... Next he put the mackerel in a fry-pan, and the shanty began to smell like a Banks boat just in from a v'yage.
- 2013-08-03, Yesterday’s fuel, The dawn of the oil age was fairly recent. Although the stuff was used to waterproof boats in the Middle East 6,000 years ago, extracting it in earnest began only in 1859 after an oil strike in Pennsylvania. The first barrels of crude fetched $18 (around $450 at today’s prices).
- (poker slang) A full house.
- A vehicle, utensil, or dish somewhat resembling a boat in shape.a stone boat; a gravy boat
- (chemistry) One of two possible conformations of cyclohexane rings (the other being chair), shaped roughly like a boat.
- (AU, politics, informal) The refugee boats arriving in Australian waters, and by extension, refugees generally.
Usage notes
There is no explicit limit, but the word boat usually refers to a relatively small watercraft, smaller than a ship but larger than a dinghy.
Hyponyms
Derived terms
Verb
- (intransitive) To travel by boat.
- (transitive) To transport in a boat.to boat goods
- (transitive) To place in a boat.to boat oars