aboard

1. 1
   preposition

   Used before a ship, boat, train, or plane to mean on board it, or onto or into it.

   The last passengers hurried aboard the ship just before the gangway was raised.

   Two nurses aboard the flight looked after the sick passenger until the plane landed.

2. 2
   adverb

   On board a ship or boat, or into or within one; by extension, into or within a railway car.

   Late commuters jumped aboard just as the train doors began to close.

   Once all the cargo was aboard, the freighter slipped away from the dock.

   Oppositeashore

   Note

   The word began at sea: Middle English abord, from a- "on" and bord, "board, side of a ship". Railway cars came later, by extension. As an adverb it stands alone after a verb of motion (climb aboard, hop aboard) with no object; once an object follows, as in aboard the ship, the word has become the preposition.

3. 3
   adverb

   Into a team, group, or company as one of its members.

   The startup brought an experienced finance chief aboard ahead of its next funding round.

   The editor welcomed her aboard on her first morning in the newsroom.

   Note

   Joining a team is pictured here as boarding a ship, the image behind the passenger sense carried ashore. It is a word for arriving, so it keeps company with verbs of joining (come aboard, bring someone aboard) and above all with the greeting a newcomer hears: the office manager welcomed him aboard.

4. 4
   adverb

   On or onto the back of a horse, a camel, or a similar animal.

   With a quick swing of his leg, the cowboy was aboard and the horse began to buck.

   The favorite, with an experienced jockey aboard, pulled away in the final stretch.

5. 5
   adverb

   In baseball, on base, as a runner who has reached one of the bases.

   With the tying run aboard in the ninth, the manager sent up a pinch hitter.

   She homered with two aboard to put the game out of reach.

   Note

   Baseball counts runners with the word ships use for passengers. It sits most comfortably in a with-phrase beside what the batter did (he doubled with two men aboard, scoring them both) telling the reader how many runners the hit could bring home. Outside that phrase, on base is the everyday way to say it.

6. 6
   preposition

   Used before a word for a horse to mean onto it.

   The ranch hand swung aboard the bay mare and headed for the far pasture.

   Grabbing a handful of mane, the rider vaulted aboard her horse without touching the stirrups.

7. 7
   adverb

   Alongside: beside a ship, or close against its side.

   The supply ship came close aboard, and the crews passed fuel hoses across the gap.

   The lookout reported a fishing boat passing close aboard on the starboard side.

   Similaralongside

   Note

   Sailors use it to place a vessel beside a ship, not on it: here the side-of-a-ship meaning of board still shows through. It lives in two phrases: close aboard, for vessels passing near each other's sides, and laying one ship aboard another, bringing the hulls together, as a captain does to an enemy. Read quickly, both look like the everyday "on board" meaning, the misreading to avoid.

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