coble

American  

[koh-buhl] / ˈkoʊ bəl /

noun

1. a flat-bottomed fishing boat with a lugsail, used mainly in northern England and Scotland for salmon.

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coble British  

/ ˈkəʊbəl, ˈkɒbəl /

noun

1. a small single-masted flat-bottomed fishing boat

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Etymology

Origin of coble

First recorded in 1400–50; late Middle English cobel; probably of Celtic origin (compare Welsh ceubal, ceubol “skiff, ferryboat”), ultimately from Late Latin caupulus, caupilus “small sailing vessel with a high prow”

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

coble

"Gae tell my father and my mother, It was naebody did me this ill; I was a-going my ain errands,35 Lost at the coble o' bonnie Cargill."

From English and Scottish Ballads (volume 3 of 8) by Various

As soon as the coble is put under sail her great rudder is fixed; and this rudder, which is very broad, goes under water to a depth of three feet or so.

From The Romance of the Coast by James Runciman

For some time I could see naught; but at last it did seem to me as if something dark—a great fish, or perhaps only a shadow—followed studiously in the track of the moving coble.

From The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson, Volume XXI by Robert Louis Stevenson

This, after considerable difficulty, William Darling succeeded in doing, when immediately Grace rowed off in the coble, to prevent it being dashed to pieces.

From A Yacht Voyage Round England by William Henry Giles Kingston

I accompanied them to Sluie, and was ferried over the river in a salmon coble.

From The Cruise of the Betsey or, A Summer Ramble Among the Fossiliferous Deposits of the Hebrides. With Rambles of a Geologist or, Ten Thousand Miles Over the Fossiliferous Deposits of Scotland by W. S. (William Samuel) Symonds