bumboat
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of bumboat
1665–75; probably partial translation of Dutch bomschuit a small fishing boat, perhaps contraction of bodemschuit ( je ) literally, bottom-boat
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.
Consider buddleboy, bogeyman, bumboat man, flirter, higgler, pugger, muffleman, quarrel picker, spittle-maker, whiff-maker and willy man.
From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 14, 2025
Like bumboat boys diving for pennies, book publishers scrambled for Woollcott words of praise for a new work, to splash on the volume's jacket as the blurb of blurbs.
From Time Magazine Archive
“Why, you see, his aunt is a good old soul, who keeps a bumboat, and goes off to the shipping.”
From The Poacher Joseph Rushbrook by Marryat, Frederick
Having entrusted these letters to the bumboat woman, who promised faithfully to put them into the post-office, we had then nothing else to do but to look out for some place to sleep.
From Jacob Faithful by Marryat, Frederick
When this gig was capsized, it contained, besides Captain Marryat, a middy and an old bumboat woman.
From Adventures in Many Lands by Gillett, F.
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.
