boat people

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plural noun

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.

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Origin of boat people

First recorded in 1975–80

Words nearby boat people

boatman, boatmanship, boat nail, boat neck, boat patch, boat people, boat race, boat shoe, boatslip, boatsman, boatsmanship

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

How to use boat people in a sentence

Really, is it any wonder that fluoride should freak people out?
Anti-Fluoriders Are The OG Anti-Vaxxers|Michael Schulson|July 27, 2016|DAILY BEAST
Placed in drinking water, fluoride can serve people who otherwise have poor access to dental care.
Anti-Fluoriders Are The OG Anti-Vaxxers|Michael Schulson|July 27, 2016|DAILY BEAST
There was a lot of positive feedback from people interested in non-gender binary people.
Grindr’s Trans Dating Problem|David Levesley|January 9, 2015|DAILY BEAST
Then add in all bored people, as well as people whose job it is to report on celebrities.
Sia and Shia LaBeouf’s Pedophilia Nontroversy Over ‘Elastic Heart’|Marlow Stern|January 9, 2015|DAILY BEAST

If anything the work the two cops and the maintenance guy were doing deserves more respect and probably helped a lot more people.
Trolls and Martyrdom: Je Ne Suis Pas Charlie|Arthur Chu|January 9, 2015|DAILY BEAST
The Majesty on high has a colony and a people on earth, which otherwise is under the supremacy of the Evil One.
Solomon and Solomonic Literature|Moncure Daniel Conway
The people here retained the same paganism and barbarity, only they were not so dangerous, being conquered by the Muscovites.
The Life and Most Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, of York, Mariner (1801)|Daniel Defoe
All our people were well mounted, and armed with rifles, pistols, and bowie-knives.
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No. CCCXXXIX. January, 1844. Vol. LV.|Various
“This is a distressing predicament for these young people,” thought Mr. Pickwick, as he dressed himself next morning.
The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, v. 2(of 2)|Charles Dickens
Few people, I think, realize that, and fewer still realize the reasonable consequences of that.
The Salvaging Of Civilisation|H. G. (Herbert George) Wells

British Dictionary definitions for boat people

boat people

pl n

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

boat people

Origin of boat people

Words nearby boat people

Words related to boat people

How to use boat people in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for boat people