BOAT

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does boat mean? 

• BOAT (noun)
  The noun BOAT has 2 senses:

1. a small vessel for travel on water

2. a dish (often boat-shaped) for serving gravy or sauce

  Familiarity information: BOAT used as a noun is rare.

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

1. ride in a boat on water

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

 Dictionary entry details 

• BOAT (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:

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

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

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

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

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))

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

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

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)

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

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

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)

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

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

boat; gravy boat; gravy holder; sauceboat

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)

• BOAT (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they boat    ... he / she / it boats   
Past simple: boated   
Past participle: boated   
-ing form: boating   

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)

 Context examples 

Evidently the strange steamboat had lowered its boats.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

In a few moments I saw him in his boat, which shot across the waters with an arrowy swiftness and was soon lost amidst the waves.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

The boat, however, did not sink, for the good fairy took care of her friend, and soon raised the boat up again, and it went safely on.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

Also, it is made of iron, this boat, and yet does it not sink.

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

This may be due to the motion of the host star plowing through the interstellar medium, like the bow wave from a boat crossing a lake.

(Hubble Finds Huge System of Dusty Material Enveloping the Young Star HR 4796A, NASA)

Only for it we should have overtaken the boat long ago; and by now my dear Mina would have been free.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

I volunteered for one of the boats, where I had, of course, no business.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

I stored the boat with the carcases of a hundred oxen, and three hundred sheep, with bread and drink proportionable, and as much meat ready dressed as four hundred cooks could provide.

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

This train stops at Canterbury; and there is always at least a quarter of an hour’s delay at the boat.

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

One former Inuit camp on an islet off Ellesmere Island contained the rivets of a Norse boat – quite possibly a hunting trip that never returned.

(Over-hunting walruses contributed to the collapse of Norse Greenland, University of Cambridge)