boatman
Americannoun
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a person skilled in the use of small craft.
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a person who sells, rents, or works on boats.
noun
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a man who works on, hires out, repairs, or operates a boat or boats
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short for water boatman
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of boatman
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.
See Examples For:
The Bumps is closer to cheese-rolling than rowing, the Peterhouse boatman explained in a pep talk to the squad.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 19, 2026
"I'm an old boatman, I have experienced another four floods in the village. This was the worst," he told media.
From Reuters ● Sep. 9, 2023
As the skilled boatman guides the outrigger across the reef and into the shallows, Agutaya looks like a piece of paradise.
From BBC ● Jun. 9, 2023
Whenever he dropped a toy in the Nile, he said, a passing boatman would rescue it.
From New York Times ● Jun. 29, 2022
The boatman bent to listen and then shook his head.
From "The Amber Spyglass" by Philip Pullman
In the extracts we've seen, some openly acknowledged the use of mercenaries, or as they called them, "boatmen."
From BBC ● Apr. 14, 2026
Certainly the good Samaritans must have known the two boatmen were not going to be put on trial, owing to lack of evidence.
From Slate ● Oct. 21, 2025
Just before the accident, onlookers from the river bank were shouting at the boatmen to navigate carefully.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 27, 2022
What takes me by surprise is the warmth of the boatmen, Italian American, old, kind, used to Hindu families carrying out the ritual of scattering ashes on water.
From Salon ● Jun. 25, 2022
“The course is extremely tortuous...twisting and turning in every direction. The boatmen have some strenuous times in getting the boat around some of the curves,” Cherrie wrote in his diary.
From "Death on the River of Doubt" by Samantha Seiple
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.
