boat
Pluralboats
Pluralboats
- 1A craft used on or in the water for carrying goods, fishing, racing, cruising, or military purposes, propelled by oars, a motor, or wind.
The fishing boat returned to harbor with a full catch.
Several boats raced along the river at dawn.
UsageTravel by boat, with no article. People usually sit in a small boat and travel on a larger one.
Note
Any craft qualifies, whether rowed, sailed or motored, from a cramped passenger deck like the Mount Vernon in Emerson Hough's The Purchase Price (1910) to a working fishing vessel. Later meanings borrow its shape, from the gravy boat to the chemist's ring.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 4 facts
- Emerson Hough wrote The Purchase Price, published in 1910. gutenberg.org
- The novel describes the Mount Vernon's passenger deck space as cramped. gutenberg.org
- Gravy boat derives its name from resemblance to a boat. en.wikipedia.org
- Chemistry uses boat for a boat-shaped ring conformation. chem.ucla.edu
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Less common meanings
- 4A dish, utensil, or container shaped roughly like a boat, such as a gravy boat.
The caterer arranged each boat of sauce beside the carving station.
Two porcelain boats held the cranberry sauce and the gravy.
UsageUsually with a noun in front: gravy boat, sauce boat.
Note
Here the word names a shape rather than a vessel, and it usually arrives with a noun in front that narrows it down. A gravy boat is a dish on the table, while a stone boat is a conveyance. Neither goes near water. Unlike the craft on the water, nothing here needs to float. What carries over is a rough likeness to a boat's shape, like the hull-like outline of a gravy boat.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 3 facts
- A gravy boat is a serving dish. en.wiktionary.org
- A stone boat, in the intended land-transport sense, is a conveyance that does not need to float. en.wiktionary.org
- A stone boat can be a flat platform of planks rather than a hollow container. Restrict this description to the gravy boat. en.wikipedia.org
- 5A large, heavy car whose size comes across as excessive or wasteful.
She finally sold the gas-guzzling boat and bought something compact.
Parking that boat downtown is always a nightmare.
UsageUsually mocking: that ridiculous boat. Owners may use it fondly of their own cars.
Similartank, barge, gas-guzzler
Note
Mockery is often built in. Calling a car a boat says it is too big, too heavy and too wasteful, rarely simply large. Its near-neighbors land yacht and sled share the territory.
- 6In Australian political discourse, the refugee boats arriving in the country's waters, and by extension refugees or asylum seekers in general.
Every candidate at the forum was asked what they would do about the boats.
When a boat is intercepted at sea, its passengers are taken to offshore processing.
UsageUsually the boats, as in stop the boats.
Note
Australian political shorthand in which the vessels stand for the people aboard them. In campaign talk it can mean the whole question of asylum arrivals rather than any particular craft. Because it names the craft rather than the passengers, it can sound impersonal, and outside Australia and Britain it may need explaining.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
- The boats is Australian political shorthand concerning asylum arrivals. en.wiktionary.org
- 7In poker, a full house: three cards of one rank together with a pair of another.
She slow-played the boat and trapped him on the turn.
Flopping a boat early gave him a commanding chip lead.
UsageMostly table talk among players; written rules and rankings say full house.
Note
Table slang for one of poker's strongest hands. It beats a flush and falls below four of a kind.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- A boat is a full house. worldpokertour.com
- A full house is among the strongest standard poker hands. pokerstars.com
- Under standard poker rankings, a full house beats a flush and ranks below four of a kind. en.wikipedia.org
- 8To deport a convicted person to a distant penal colony, carrying them there by ship.
Troy was 'boated' for seven years after being found guilty of burglary and robbery.
2021, Graham Seal, CondemnedNote
Criminal slang for a legal sentence. To transport an offender meant sending him on a voyage, so to boat someone said the same thing more bluntly than the ordinary carrying verb. The word is obsolete and now appears in history writing, held in scare quotes: Graham Seal's Condemned (2021) writes that Troy was 'boated' for seven years.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- Boat was criminal slang meaning to transport an offender. gutenberg.org
- Graham Seal wrote Condemned, published in 2021. gristlyhistory.blog
- Seal writes that Troy was 'boated' for seven years, putting the slang word in quotation marks. en.wiktionary.org
- 9In chemistry, one of the two main shapes of a cyclohexane ring, roughly resembling a boat, the other being the chair.
- 10In Conway's Game of Life, a still life made of five living cells surrounding a single dead cell, roughly boat-shaped.
Showing meanings only.
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Origin
From Middle English "bot," from Old English "bāt" (boat), going back through Proto-Germanic to a Proto-Indo-European root *bʰeyd- meaning "to break, split." It is related to Old Norse "beit," and words like Dutch "boot," German "Boot," and French "bateau" are ultimately borrowed from the Old English word.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 7 facts
- Boat comes from Middle English bot. en.wiktionary.org
- The Middle English word comes from Old English bāt, meaning boat. en.wiktionary.org
- The word descends through Proto-Germanic from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeyd-, meaning to break or split. en.wiktionary.org
- Boat is related to Old Norse beit. en.wiktionary.org
- Dutch boot ultimately derives from a borrowing of the Old English word. en.wiktionary.org
- German Boot ultimately derives from a borrowing of the English word descended from Old English bāt. en.wiktionary.org
- French bateau ultimately derives from the Old English word. en.wiktionary.org