boat people

See synonyms for: boat%20person on Thesaurus.com

plural noun
  1. refugees who have fled a country by boat, usually without sufficient provisions, navigational aids, or a set destination, especially those who left Indochina by sea as a result of the fall of South Vietnam in 1975.

Origin of boat people

1
First recorded in 1975–80

Words Nearby boat people

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

How to use boat people in a sentence

  • He checked the evidence of the boat people as it had appeared in the papers by what they said now.

    '19,000' | Burford Delannoy

British Dictionary definitions for boat people

boat people

pl n
  1. refugees, esp from Vietnam in the late 1970s, who leave by boat hoping to be picked up by ships of another country

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