felucca

[ fuh-luhk-uh, -loo-kuh ]

noun

a sailing vessel, lateen-rigged on two masts, used in the Mediterranean Sea and along the Spanish and Portuguese coasts.
a small fishing boat formerly used in the San Francisco Bay area.

Origin of felucca

1620–30; earlier falluca<Spanish faluca, earlier variant of falúa, perhaps <Catalan faluga<Arabic falūwah small cargo ship

Words Nearby felucca

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use felucca in a sentence

Mrs. Armine stepped out of the felucca, helped by Ibrahim, and the felucca at once put off, and began to return across the Nile.
Bella Donna | Robert Hichens
It was not long before I discovered that there was a mystery of some sort attaching to the felucca that lay at anchor in the bay.
A Middy of the King | Harry Collingwood
But no sooner was the felucca seen and recognised than the whole place was thrown into a state of consternation.
A Middy of the King | Harry Collingwood
The breeze that had filled the sails of the felucca had either died down or was the possession of the river.
Bella Donna | Robert Hichens
The sailors set the great lateen sails of the felucca, which bellied out like things leaping into life.
Bella Donna | Robert Hichens

British Dictionary definitions for felucca

felucca

/ (fɛˈlʌkə) /

noun

a narrow lateen-rigged vessel of the Mediterranean

Origin of felucca

C17: from Italian felucca, probably from obsolete Spanish faluca, probably from Arabic fulūk ships, from Greek epholkion small boat, from ephelkein to tow

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

Browse