bullboat

American  

[bool-boht] / ˈbʊlˌboʊt /

noun

1. a lightweight, shallow-draft boat made of hides stretched over a wooden frame and used by Plains Indians.

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Etymology

Origin of bullboat

An Americanism dating back to 1825–35; bull ¹ + boat

Example Sentences

But you can't beat the bullboat for the purpose for which it was first made; that of navigating the shallower streams.

From Project Gutenberg

Pardner's waitin' near th' mouth with a bullboat.

From Project Gutenberg

Kneeling in a "bullboat," fashioned from the skin of an animal, and wielding a paddle with the dexterity only to be attained after years of practice in canoeing, a sturdily-built and thoroughly bronzed Canadian lad glanced ever and anon back along the course over which he had so recently passed; and then up at the black storm clouds hurrying out of the mysterious North.

From Project Gutenberg

Considering that he was in so vast a wilderness this adventurous lad appeared to have scant luggage in his well battered bullboat—indeed, beyond the buskskin jacket, which he had thrown off because of his exertions, there did not seem to be anything at all aboard the craft, not even a gun, by means of which he might provide himself with food while on the journey downstream.

From Project Gutenberg

He kept to the middle of the river when it would seem to at least have been the part of wisdom had he edged his craft closer to either shore, so that he might, in time, make a safe landing in preference to trusting himself to the mercy of the wild rapids, in which his frail bullboat would be but as a chip in the swirl of conflicting waters.

From Project Gutenberg