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Boat

   Also found in: Dictionary/thesaurus, Medical, Acronyms, Idioms, Wikipedia 0.01 sec.
boat, small, open nautical vessel propelled by sail, oar, pole, paddle, or motor. The use of the term boat for larger vessels, although common, is somewhat improper, but the line between boats and ships is not easy to draw. A number of special types of boat are generally referred to by their individual names rather than by the generic term, e.g., the canoe canoe , long, narrow watercraft with sharp ends originally used by most peoples. It is usually propelled by means of paddles, although sails and, more recently, outboard motors are also used.
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, the kayak kayak , Eskimo canoe, originally made of sealskin stretched over a framework of whalebone or driftwood. It is completely covered except for the opening in which the paddler sits.
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 (Eskimo decked canoe), and the umiak (Eskimo open boat). Simple dugouts, made from hollowed-out logs, have been known since prehistoric times to all peoples dwelling on waterways. The ancient Egyptians used boats made of acacia wood and held together with pegs. Modern wooden boats are built in four ways: with fore-and-aft planks laid with their edges flush (carvel-built); with fore-and-aft planks laid with overlapping edges (clinker-built); with inner and outer layers of planks running diagonally in opposite directions; and with planking consisting of large sheets of plywood. Many boats, however, are now made of molded fiberglass or of aluminum. Primitive boats in many parts of the world are stabilized by an outrigger—a parallel float attached by projecting arms. The varieties of boats in modern use are almost infinite. The Chinese junk, with high poop and overhanging bow, is large enough to be classified as a ship; the junk, together with the sampan (a wide, flat-bottomed skiff, often having a mat-covered cabin with living quarters), is a familiar sight in the rivers and coastal waters of East Asia. The lateen-rigged dhow, in which energetic Arab merchants of the Middle Ages plied their trade along all the shores of S Asia and E Africa, is still in use today. A familiar local craft on the Mediterranean is the flat-bottomed, canoelike, pole-driven gondola of the Venetian canals. A typical Mediterranean vessel of ancient times was the galley galley, long, narrow vessel widely used in ancient and medieval times, propelled principally by oars but also fitted with sails. The earliest type was sometimes 150 ft (46 m) long with 50 oars.
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, usually propelled by oars. Because the northern seas were stormier, the Viking boats, which the Norsemen were building by the 5th cent. A.D., were more seaworthy; they were believed to be the first clinker-built boats. Deckless or half-decked, with elevated bow and stern, these early boats took the Norsemen to all the coasts of Europe and across the Atlantic. The later rugged whaleboat was developed from the Viking type of construction and came to be used for numerous purposes. The fishing boats of the North and Baltic seas, also built on Viking principles, are roughly similar to whaleboats. Another important fishing boat is the dory, a small, versatile, flat-bottomed craft easily transported on shipboard and used in the entire N Atlantic.

Bibliography

For bibliography, see separate articles on various types of boats.


boat
1. a small vessel propelled by oars, paddle, sails, or motor for travelling, transporting goods, etc., esp one that can be carried aboard a larger vessel
2. (not in technical use) another word for ship
3. a small boat-shaped container for incense, used in some Christian churches

boat [bōt]
(chemistry)
A platinum or ceramic vessel for holding a substance for analysis by combustion.
(naval architecture)
A small watercraft.

Boat 

a small river rowing vessel. Boats sometimes have a sail or engine (motorboats). In modern-day water transportation, boats are used only for small-scale commercial fishing or for recreation. Ships of several naval classes are called boats, such as gunboats and U-boats.


Boat 

(Russian, shliupka), an open vessel with a wooden, metal, or plastic hull. Boats may be propelled by oars or powered by internal-combustion engines; most rowboats also have rigging with removable masts. Boats are of several types, including naval ship’s boats, lifeboats and working boats for merchant ships, lifeboats for lake and river vessels, boats used by shore rescue stations, and sports boats. Boats range in length from less than 3 m for a sculler to more than 11.5m for the 22-oar naval launch.



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In these times of ours, though concerning the exact year there is no need to be precise, a boat of dirty and disreputable appearance, with two figures in it, floated on the Thames, between Southwark bridge which is of iron, and London Bridge which is of stone, as an autumn evening was closing in.
Light as the task would have been for a strong man to lower the small boat to the ground, it took Daylight hours.
Preserving an interval of some few yards between itself and the ship, the Jeroboam's boat by the occasional use of its oars contrived to keep parallel to the Pequod, as she heavily forged through the sea (for by this time it blew very fresh), with her main-topsail aback; though, indeed, at times by the sudden onset of a large rolling wave, the boat would be pushed some way ahead; but would be soon skilfully brought to her proper bearings again.
 
 
 
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