Library / English Dictionary

BOAT

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

A small vessel for travel on water

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("boat" is a kind of...):

vessel; watercraft (a craft designed for water transportation)

Meronyms (parts of "boat"):

boat whistle (a whistle on a boat that is sounded as a warning)

Domain member category:

registered ((of a boat or vessel) furnished with necessary official documents specifying ownership etc)

unregistered ((a boat or vessel) not furnished with official documents)

crank; cranky; tender; tippy ((used of boats) inclined to heel over easily under sail)

scull (propel with sculls)

tack; wear round (turn into the wind)

sculler (someone who sculls (moves a long oar pivoted on the back of the boat to propel the boat forward))

passenger; rider (a traveler riding in a vehicle (a boat or bus or car or plane or train etc) who is not operating it)

pontoon ((nautical) a floating structure (as a flat-bottomed boat) that serves as a dock or to support a bridge)

painter (a line that is attached to the bow of a boat and used for tying up (as when docking or towing))

mooring; mooring line ((nautical) a line that holds an object (especially a boat) in place)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "boat"):

towboat; tower; tug; tugboat (a powerful small boat designed to pull or push larger ships)

cutter; pinnace; ship's boat; tender (a boat for communication between ship and shore)

surfboat (a boat that can be launched or landed in heavy surf)

steamboat (a boat propelled by a steam engine)

small boat (a boat that is small)

sea boat (a boat that is seaworthy; that is adapted to the open seas)

scow (any of various flat-bottomed boats with sloping ends)

river boat (a boat used on rivers or to ply a river)

punt (an open flat-bottomed boat used in shallow waters and propelled by a long pole)

police boat (a boat used by harbor police)

pilot boat (a boat to carry pilots to and from large ships)

motorboat; powerboat (a boat propelled by an internal-combustion engine)

mail boat; mailboat; packet; packet boat (a boat for carrying mail)

ark (a boat built by Noah to save his family and animals from the flood)

barge; flatboat; hoy; lighter (a flatbottom boat for carrying heavy loads (especially on canals))

bumboat (a small boat that ferries supplies and commodities for sale to a larger ship at anchor)

canal boat; narrow boat; narrowboat (a long boat that carries freight and is narrow enough to be used in canals)

catamaran (a boat with two parallel hulls held together by single deck)

ferry; ferryboat (a boat that transports people or vehicles across a body of water and operates on a regular schedule)

fireboat (a boat equipped to fight fires on ships or along a waterfront)

gondola (long narrow flat-bottomed boat propelled by sculling; traditionally used on canals of Venice)

guard boat (a boat that is on guard duty (as in a harbor) around a fleet of warships)

gunboat (a small shallow-draft boat carrying mounted guns; used by costal patrols)

junk (any of various Chinese boats with a high poop and lugsails)

longboat (the largest boat carried by a merchant sailing vessel)

lugger (small fishing boat rigged with one or more lugsails)

mackinaw; Mackinaw boat (a flat-bottomed boat used on upper Great Lakes)

Derivation:

boat (ride in a boat on water)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A dish (often boat-shaped) for serving gravy or sauce

Synonyms:

boat; gravy boat; gravy holder; sauceboat

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("boat" is a kind of...):

dish (a piece of dishware normally used as a container for holding or serving food)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "boat"):

argyle; argyll (a covered gravy holder of silver or other metal containing a detachable central vessel for hot water to keep the gravy warm)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Ride in a boat on water

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Hypernyms (to "boat" is one way to...):

ride (be carried or travel on or in a vehicle)

Domain category:

navigation; pilotage; piloting (the guidance of ships or airplanes from place to place)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "boat"):

motorboat (ride in a motorboat)

yacht (travel in a yacht)

sail (travel on water propelled by wind)

row (propel with oars)

canoe (travel by canoe)

kayak (travel in a small canoe)

paddle (propel with a paddle)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s

Derivation:

boat (a small vessel for travel on water)

boater (someone who drives or rides in a boat)

boating (water travel for pleasure)

Credits

 Context examples: 

Martin was the only one capable of handling a boat, and he was pressed into service.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

The turbulence caused by the boat sliding through the water excites the plankton to emit light, which reveals the existence of the the turbulent regions in the underlying dark water.

(ALMA Finds Huge Hidden Reservoirs of Turbulent Gas in Distant Galaxies, ESO)

Just as a grounded boat can float again when the weight of its cargo is removed, a glacier that loses ice weight can float over land where it used to stick.

(Huge Cavity in Antarctic Glacier Signals Rapid Decay, NASA)

“The flow structure behind the front dune is like a wake behind a boat, and affects the properties of the next dune.”

(Sand dunes can ‘communicate’ with each other, University of Cambridge)

Increased copper in the water can be a result of agricultural runoff or marine paint leaching from boat hulls.

(Sea fan corals face new threat in warming ocean: copper, National Science Foundation)

It was the Rock of Gibraltar, their largest and best boat.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The front seat of a car, forward cars of a train, upper deck on a boat or wing seats in a plane may give you a smoother ride.

(Motion Sickness, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)

I think that those seven weeks represented the difference between the mail-boat which brought the letter and the sailing vessel which brought the writer.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

During its plunge, the galaxy plows through intergalactic material, like a boat moving through water.

(Hubble Sees Plunging Galaxy Losing Its Gas, NASA)

Four—an incense-boat, a ewer of silver, a gold buckle and a cope worked in pearls.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)