boat

American  

[boht] / boʊt /

noun

• boats
  plural

1. a vessel for transport by water, constructed to provide buoyancy by excluding water and shaped to give stability and permit propulsion.

2. a small ship, generally for specialized use.

   a fishing boat.

3. a small vessel carried for use by a large one, as a lifeboat.

   They lowered the boats for evacuation.

4. a ship.

5. a vessel of any size built for navigation on a river or other inland body of water.

6. a serving dish resembling a boat.

   a gravy boat;

   a celery boat.

7. Ecclesiastical. a container for holding incense before it is placed in the censer.

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verb (used without object)

• boats,
  present (3rd person singular)
• boated,
  past participle,  past
• boating
  present participle

1. to go in a boat.

   We boated down the Thames.

verb (used with object)

• boats,
  present (3rd person singular)
• boated,
  past participle,  past
• boating
  present participle

1. to transport in a boat.

   They boated us across the bay.

2. to remove (an oar) from the water and place athwartships.

idioms

1. in the same boat, in the same circumstances; faced with the same problems.

   The new recruits were all in the same boat.

2. miss the boat,

   1. to fail to take advantage of an opportunity.

      He missed the boat when he applied too late to get into college.

   2. to miss the point of; fail to understand.

      I missed the boat on that explanation.

3. rock the boat. rock.

boat British  

/ bəʊt /

noun

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. navy a submarine

4. a container for gravy, sauce, etc

5. a small boat-shaped container for incense, used in some Christian churches

6. sharing the same problems

7. See burn 1

8. to lose an opportunity

9. informal to celebrate, esp lavishly and expensively

10. informal to cause a disturbance in the existing situation

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verb

1. (intr) to travel or go in a boat, esp as a form of recreation

2. (tr) to transport or carry in a boat

boat More Idioms  

1. see burn one's bridges (boats); in the same boat; miss the boat; rock the boat.

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• boatable
  adjective
• boatless
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• boats
  plural

Participles

• boating
  present
• boated
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• boat
  simple
• boats
  simple
• have boated
  perfect
• has boated
  perfect
• am boating
  progressive
• are boating
  progressive
• is boating
  progressive
• have been boating
  perfect progressive
• has been boating
  perfect progressive

Past

• boated
  simple
• had boated
  perfect
• was boating
  progressive
• were boating
  progressive
• had been boating
  perfect progressive

Future

• will boat
  simple
• will have boated
  perfect
• will be boating
  progressive
• will have been boating
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of boat

First recorded before 900; Middle English boot (noun), Old English bāt; cognate with Old Norse beit

Explanation

A boat is a water craft, a vessel that floats and can be propelled through the water. If you buy a private island, you'll need a boat to get there. A lobster boat travels across ocean bays powered by a small motor, and a sail boat is moved by the wind hitting its sails at a particular angle. A much smaller type of boat is a gravy boat, a boat-shaped serving dish that holds a sauce. Boat is sometimes used as a verb, meaning "to go out in a boat." The Old English root is bat, "ship or vessel," from a Germanic source.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

boat boats boated boating

Rentner led visitors around by boat then, skimming over the inundated land.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 26, 2026

The rest are mounted on the walls and show the bug in places like Battambang and the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh, at a restaurant, in a classroom, on a boat and a bridge.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 25, 2026

Machado, who fled by boat in December to accept the Nobel Peace Prize, has tried to return seven times, according to her team.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 24, 2026

He had to be taken by boat from his house during the storm.

From BBC ● Sep. 23, 2026

Pain momentarily fogged my brain, and I sat down hard on the wooden deck of the boat.

From "Glitch" by Laura Martin

Mr. Fiennes roams the gardens that surround the home Maupassant had built in 1883 and cycles by a stretch of the Seine where the author sailed his boats.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 25, 2026

The Manston centre in Kent became overwhelmed in November 2022 at the height of the small boats crisis, with around 4,000 people held there.

From BBC ● Sep. 25, 2026

The figures include a dinghy carrying 51 people which departed from Normandy, much further west than small boats typically set off, on Monday morning and spent more than 33 hours at sea.

From BBC ● Sep. 24, 2026

The implication is that the same tide that lifts our portfolios’ boats lifts those of the richest Americans as well.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 24, 2026

They looked at Chicken, who made blub, blub, blub sounds as he motored french fry boats through the hot sauce lake.

From "Caterpillar Summer" by Gillian McDunn

This summer, ProPublica journalists hiked and boated across Rubkona County, the epicenter of South Sudan’s outbreak and home to the country’s largest refugee camp, to interview families that the U.S. cut off from help.

From Salon ● Dec. 16, 2025

“It’s the worst situation I’ve seen on the lake,” said South Lake Tahoe Mayor Tamara Wallace, who has lived and boated in the area for decades.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 24, 2025

"Nowadays it has to be boated off. It's just not realistic at all. But it captures everyone's imagination."

From BBC ● May 5, 2025

The film shifts to black and white as the action moves inside a building less adorned than the ones the man has boated past, but grand, even so.

From New York Times ● Apr. 19, 2024

With the Marine Jungschar, the naval branch of the Hitler Youth, Herbert boated on the waters in Tetlow Park in eastern Berlin.

From "Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler's Shadow" by Susan Campbell Bartoletti

Ms. Brauer, a scrappy, dyslexic young woman from a working-class Long Island, N.Y., family, discovered boating in college.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 24, 2026

In its news release, the sheriff’s office extended condolences to White’s family and reminded the public to wear flotation devices while boating.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 13, 2026

Residents of the city, which is nestled in the Appalachian foothills with the Tennessee River running through the heart of a lively downtown, enjoy a variety of outdoor activities including hiking, biking and boating.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 25, 2026

Ken says the boating community in Leeds is "really warm"

From BBC ● Aug. 6, 2026

“I lost the leg in a boating accident when I was a child. But I wanted you to know that.”

From "The Great Santini" by Pat Conroy

Related Words

• barge
• canoe
• catamaran
• craft
• dinghy
• gondola
• raft
• sailboat
• schooner
• ship
• yacht