bateau
Americannoun
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bateaux
plural
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Nautical. Also
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Chiefly Canadian and Southern U.S.. a small, flat-bottomed rowboat used on rivers.
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a half-decked, sloop-rigged boat used for fishing on Chesapeake Bay; skipjack.
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(in some regions) a scow.
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a pontoon of a floating bridge.
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of bateau
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
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.
See Examples For:
Another 16.5 percent of courts are made of an imitation clay surface that is similar to the terre bateau but plays harder and faster than the softer, traditional clay.
From New York Times ● May 30, 2022
With the development of the James River and Kanawha Canal, followed quickly by the Richmond and Alleghany Railroad, the bateau was usurped and made irrelevant.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 10, 2022
In the picture, Portman is wearing what looks like a Dior-inspired, cherry-red dress with bateau neckline and sizable buttons, complemented by a triple strand of pearls.
From Time ● Dec. 16, 2015
Several boat launches provide access to the East Branch of the Penobscot River, which Thoreau rode on a flat-bottomed bateau on his final visit here in 1857.
From Washington Times ● Oct. 11, 2015
The river was dark and a bateau mouche went by, all bright with lights, going fast and quiet up and out of sight under the bridge.
From "The Sun Also Rises" by Ernest Hemingway
Crews restocked their bateaux with freight for the return trip, which could take as many as 15 days upstream.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 10, 2022
And that rank “was because of bateaux transporting tobacco,” says Brian Coffield, a historic interpreter at Pleasant Grove Park and president of the Virginia Canals & Navigations Society.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 10, 2022
He traveled with two Penobscot Indian guides by canoe, in French bateaux, and on foot.
From New York Times ● Jun. 20, 2018
“Anyone who’s got a bass boat or bateaux or a pirogue or any kind of water craft, they know what they’re doing.”
From Washington Times ● Aug. 25, 2016
The mail has been carried in canoes or bateaux, on foot, on horseback, on steamboat and rail car.
From Fifty Years In The Northwest With An Introduction And Appendix Containing Reminiscences, Incidents And Notes by William Henry Carman Folsom
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.
