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.
Nearby words
boat drill, boat hook, boat nail, boat neck, boat patch, boat people, boat race, boat shoe, boat tail, boat train, boat-billed heron
Origin of boat people
First recorded in 1975–80
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019
Examples from the Web for boat people
At sundown the boat-people anchor their craft in rows to stakes, thus forming boat-terraces as it were.
Man on the Ocean|R.M. BallantyneI'll hide about, and mayhap somehow I might get a chance among the boat-people.
"Us"|Mary Louisa S. MolesworthThere exist particular works concerning the history, the customs and laws of these boat-people.
Though the boat-people were still too far off to distinguish figures, a signal might catch their eye.
The Settlers at Home|Harriet Martineau
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
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