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
Just as the ship was ready to sail, a bumboat came alongside to sell apples and cider to the sloop's crew, and from these they got an interesting piece of news.
From The Pirates' Who's Who Giving Particulars Of The Lives and Deaths Of The Pirates And Buccaneers by Gosse, Philip
We have but a poor dinner to-day, for the bumboat woman disappointed me.
From Peter Simple; and, The Three Cutters, Vol. 1-2 by Marryat, Frederick
“Is it milk massa manes, and the bumboat woman on the oder side of the bay?”
From Mr. Midshipman Easy by Marryat, Frederick
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.
