bateau
Americannoun
-
bateaux
plural
-
Nautical. Also
-
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.
-
-
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
“The boat we have now is the third boat that our crew has floated,” says Cash, who, together with Smith, has been crewing their own bateau in the festival since 2006.
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
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
In the late 18th and 19th centuries, bateaux, flat-bottomed pole boats, navigated the tempestuous James, bringing cash crops such as tobacco, flour and later coal to the Eastern Seaboard.
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
In fact, pleasant as is our journey on the Rossland, we would rather reconstruct the bateaux of 1840 and in them make the whole long journey to the sea, a thousand miles away.
From The Columbia River Its History, Its Myths, Its Scenery, Its Commerce by William Denison Lyman
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.
