cockboat
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of cockboat
1400–50; late Middle English cokboot, variant of cogboot, equivalent to cog boat, ship (akin to Old Norse kuggi small ship) + boot 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.
"It would be more candid as well as more dignified," he said, "to avow our principles explicitly to Russia and France than to come in as a cockboat in the wake of the British man-of-war."
From Time Magazine Archive
Before the cockboat reached the point he had fallen, first to his knee, then prone upon the sand.
From Sir Mortimer by Johnston, Mary
“Thaar ain’t water enough to float a cockboat; and I’m lookin’ out keerful and feelin’ my way afore I plant a fut, you bet.”
From Picked up at Sea The Gold Miners of Minturne Creek by Hutcheson, John C. (John Conroy)
"Oh, your servant, Captain, but I am an indifferent sailor; and I trust I have too much respect for myself and my new frocks, to crowd them into a river cockboat!"
From The Bow of Orange Ribbon A Romance of New York by Hampe, Theo.
It is no marvel if a proud three-decker sail round the globe; but very different is our astonishment if a cockboat come safely from the China Seas, or brave the stormy passage round the Cape.
From Davenport Dunn, Volume 2 (of 2) A Man Of Our Day by Lever, Charles James
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.
