bumboat

American  

[buhm-boht] / ˈbʌmˌboʊt /

noun

Nautical.

1. a boat used in peddling provisions and small wares among vessels lying in port or offshore.

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bumboat British  

/ ˈbʌmˌbəʊt /

noun

1. any small boat used for ferrying supplies or goods for sale to a ship at anchor or at a mooring

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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

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

Diego's friend pushed them into a little cubby-hole under the half-deck of the bumboat, saying in Spanish, which Diego translated to Lee: "Lie there, lads, and we'll put you on shore at Regla all right."

From Golden Days for Boys and Girls, Vol. XII, Jan. 3, 1891 by Elverson, James

She’s as sweet a gal as a fellow would wish to see, an’ yet he don’t pay no more attention to her than if she was an old bumboat ’ooman.

From Rivers of Ice by Ballantyne, R. M. (Robert Michael)

Instead of bein' master of a clipper ship, I'm mate on a dirty little bumboat.

From Captain Scraggs or, The Green-Pea Pirates by Grant, Gordon