dinghy

[ ding-gee ]
See synonyms for dinghy on Thesaurus.com
noun,plural din·ghies.
  1. any small boat designed as a tender or lifeboat, especially a small ship's boat, rowed, sailed, or driven by a motor.

  2. a boat used by warships, having four single-banked oars and a spritsail.

  1. any of various rowing or sailing boats used in sheltered waters along the Indian coasts to transport passengers and freight.

  2. an inflatable life raft.

Origin of dinghy

1
1785–95; <Bengali diṅgi,Hindi ḍiṅgī, diminutive of ḍiṅgā boat

Words that may be confused with dinghy

Words Nearby dinghy

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

How to use dinghy in a sentence

  • So there we were, marooned, half a mile out to sea, in a tiny dinghy on which the Turks again switched their blarsted guns.

  • I was truly glad, and, borrowing the dinghy from the mate, I pulled on board the newly-arrived ship.

    Peter the Whaler | W.H.G. Kingston
  • They had become very clever boatmen during their stay, using a small dinghy to make coastal journeys.

    The Home of the Blizzard | Douglas Mawson
  • I had wirelessed asking for a dinghy to be sent down, which would enable Hamilton to do more marine work; and it now came to hand.

    The Home of the Blizzard | Douglas Mawson

British Dictionary definitions for dinghy

dinghy

/ (ˈdɪŋɪ) /


nounplural -ghies
  1. any small boat, powered by sail, oars, or outboard motor: Also (esp formerly): dingy, dingey

verbplural -gies, -gying or -gied
  1. (tr) British slang to ignore (a person) or avoid (an event)

Origin of dinghy

1
C19: from Hindi or Bengali dingi a little boat, from dingā 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