CANOE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does canoe mean? 

• CANOE (noun)
  The noun CANOE has 1 sense:

1. small and light boat; pointed at both ends; propelled with a paddle

  Familiarity information: CANOE used as a noun is very rare.

• CANOE (verb)
  The verb CANOE has 1 sense:

1. travel by canoe

  Familiarity information: CANOE used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CANOE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Small and light boat; pointed at both ends; propelled with a paddle

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

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

small boat (a boat that is small)

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

birch bark; birchbark; birchbark canoe (a canoe made with the bark of a birch tree)

dugout; dugout canoe; pirogue (a canoe made by hollowing out and shaping a large log)

kayak (a small canoe consisting of a light frame made watertight with animal skins; used by Eskimos)

outrigger canoe (a seagoing canoe (as in South Pacific) with an outrigger to prevent it from upsetting)

Derivation:

canoe (travel by canoe)

canoeist (someone paddling a canoe)

• CANOE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they canoe    ... he / she / it canoes   
Past simple: canoed   
Past participle: canoed   
-ing form: canoeing   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Travel by canoe

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Context example:

canoe along the canal

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

boat (ride in a boat on water)

"Canoe" entails doing...:

paddle (propel with a paddle)

Domain category:

athletics; sport (an active diversion requiring physical exertion and competition)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s PP

Sentence examples:

They canoe the river
They canoe down the river

Derivation:

canoe (small and light boat; pointed at both ends; propelled with a paddle)

canoeist (someone paddling a canoe)

 Context examples 

Latuya Bay called loudest, so that the summer of 1898 found him and his wife threading the mazes of the broken coast-line in seventy-foot Siwash canoes.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

The crisis was perilous; but not without its charm: such as the Indian, perhaps, feels when he slips over the rapid in his canoe.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

In the meantime the canoe had drifted down the stream.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

I got down into the canoe, while the Dutchman, standing upon the deck, loaded me with all the curses and injurious terms his language could afford.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

"Dear me!" said Challenger, seating himself on the side of one of the canoes.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Next, in the line of breakers he made out a small canoe, an outrigger canoe.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

The British astronomer Stephen Hawking has famously compared crossing this boundary to going over Niagra Falls in a canoe: if you are above the falls, it is still possible to escape if you paddle hard enough.

(Astronomers Piece Together First Image of Black Hole, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

This species is motile, catalase positive, indole negative, reduces nitrate, hydrolyzes casein and gelatin, but not starch or urea and forms spores with a distinct canoe shaped body that is attached to the side of the spore in a lateral position within the sporangium.

(Brevibacillus laterosporus, NCI Thesaurus)

With respect to the pecuniary assistance enabling us to launch our frail canoe on the ocean of enterprise, I have reconsidered that important business-point; and would beg to propose my notes of hand—drawn, it is needless to stipulate, on stamps of the amounts respectively required by the various Acts of Parliament applying to such securities—at eighteen, twenty-four, and thirty months.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Edith sent Hans to their cabins to get them to take Dennin down the coast in a canoe to the nearest white settlement or trading post, but the errand was fruitless.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)