bateau

[ ba-toh; French ba-toh ]
See synonyms for bateau on Thesaurus.com
noun,plural ba·teaux [ba-tohz; French ba-toh]. /bæˈtoʊz; French baˈtoʊ/.
  1. Also batteau .Nautical.

    • Chiefly Canadian and Southern U.S.. a small, flat-bottomed rowboat used on rivers.

    • a half-decked, sloop-rigged boat used for fishing on Chesapeake Bay; skipjack.

    • (in some regions) a scow.

  2. a pontoon of a floating bridge.

Origin of bateau

1
An Americanism first recorded in 1705–15; from French; Old French batel, equivalent to bat (from Old English bāt boat) + -el diminutive suffix, from Latin -ellus; see -elle

Words Nearby bateau

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use bateau in a sentence

  • This time his mother, his old Frances, had been dragged into the infamous joke of the "bateau de fleurs."

    The Nabob | Alphonse Daudet
  • Malgr les efforts du bateau de sauvetage et des lignes envoyes au moyen du fusil porte-amarre, quatre hommes et le mousse ont pri.

    Contes Franais | Douglas Labaree Buffum
  • One day there came up the river a bateau from Tadoussac, bringing the news that the ice was all out of the St. Lawrence.

    The Quality of Mercy | W. D. Howells
  • Much surprised, Mandy Ann knelt upright and 57 looked out over the edge of the bateau.

    The Backwoodsmen | Charles G. D. Roberts
  • Meanwhile the bateau had swept down swiftly, and passed them at a distance of not more than a hundred yards.

    The Backwoodsmen | Charles G. D. Roberts

British Dictionary definitions for bateau

bateau

/ (bæˈtəʊ, French bato) /


nounplural -teaux (-təʊz, French -to)
  1. a light flat-bottomed boat used on rivers in Canada and the northern US

Origin of bateau

1
C18: from French: boat, from Old French batel, from Old English bāt; see boat

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012