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
“Want the app’intment of bumboat man in or’nary to this here schooner, eh?”
From Turned Adrift by Hodgson, Edward S.
Perhaps you would like to set up a bumboat on your own account?” added Emma, laughing.
From The Poacher Joseph Rushbrook by Marryat, Frederick
The word is probably connected with the Dutch bumboat or boomboot, a broad Dutch fishing-boat, the derivation of which is either from boom, cf.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 4, Part 4 "Bulgaria" to "Calgary" by Various
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.
