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Synonyms

flatboat

American  
[flat-boht] / ˈflætˌboʊt /

noun

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

flatboat British  
/ ˈflætˌbəʊt /

noun

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

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of flatboat

First recorded in 1650–60; flat 1 + 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.

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

From Salon • Aug. 27, 2022

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

From New York Times • Aug. 21, 2022

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.

From Washington Post • Mar. 13, 2020

Apparently, this self-taught prairie lawyer also taught himself how to buoy vessels in his early 20s, when a flatboat he worked on ran aground on a milldam in New Salem, Illinois.

From Slate • May 29, 2014

Together they took a flatboat to the house.

From "Zeitoun" by Dave Eggers

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.