flatboat

[flat-boht]

noun

1. a large, flat-bottomed boat for use in shallow water, especially on rivers.

flatboat

/ ˈflætˌbəʊt /

noun

1. any boat with a flat bottom, usually for transporting goods on a canal or river

Word History and Origins

Origin of flatboat¹

First recorded in 1650–60; flat ¹ + boat

Example Sentences

Having your flatboat regularly get stuck would be the equivalent today of facing massive traffic jams, or having your car constantly stall out.

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Times best sellers: Rinker Buck shares his adventures on a wooden flatboat in “Life On The Mississippi,” a nonfiction best seller.

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An adventure historian builds a 19th-century flatboat and sails it down the Mississippi River.

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In one day, a crew of 16 high-school students pulls up enough clumps of grass from a healthy area to fill two flatboats, then plants the grass along a shoreline or canal mouth.

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The jovial figures in Bingham’s 1846 “The Jolly Flatboatmen” are in high spirits, yet they are dancing precariously on the roof of a Missouri flatboat, under which the cargo space looks cramped, dark and ominous.

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Related Words

• raft