noun
verb
Etymology
Origin of showboat
Explanation
A showboat is someone who loves to be the center of attention, like your cousin who uses every family get-together to demonstrate her tap dancing and baton-twirling abilities. A showboat is a show-off on a grand scale, someone who very obviously wants attention. It's also a verb, often used for grandstanding athletes: "If you hadn't showboated while you were practicing your skateboard tricks, you probably wouldn't have broken your arm!" This "show-off" meaning derives from the original showboats, which were riverboat theaters that presented plays, vaudeville acts, and equestrian shows up and down the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers during the 19th and early 20th centuries.
Vocabulary lists containing showboat
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
“Some people worried was Martin O’Malley going to be a showboat — but guess what? He turned out to be a tugboat,” Ms. Mikulski said.
From Washington Times • Nov. 2, 2023
"The Takeover" started to showboat, dancing in the centre of the ring, and when Taylor took the bait and lunged in, Lopez snapped his head back with a straight left.
From BBC • Jun. 11, 2023
Back then, skeptics tried to describe him in ways that limited his accomplishments — dismissing him as selfish or a showboat.
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 24, 2023
“Parmi veder le lagrime” oozed with self-regarding longing, and “La donna è mobile” had the suavity of someone who doesn’t need to showboat.
From New York Times • Nov. 11, 2022
He looked pretty good until he saw me watching him, then he tried to showboat.
From "Slam!" by Walter Dean Myers
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
