flying boat

American  

noun

1. a seaplane whose main body is a hull adapted for floating.

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flying boat British  

noun

1. a seaplane in which the fuselage consists of a hull that provides buoyancy in the water

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Etymology

Origin of flying boat

First recorded in 1900–05

Example Sentences

The flight lieutenant, from Aberdeen, earned the honour for an attack on a German U-Boat while piloting a Catalina flying boat in June 1944.

From BBC • Aug. 16, 2025

“I heard a rumbling sound and saw a flying boat, as Thais called it back then,” recalled an animated Mr. Sao, now 87.

From New York Times • May 24, 2022

Here, after World War II, the quixotic — all right, yes, and the downright weird — aviator/producer/industrialist Howard Hughes built the enormous wooden flying boat that just about everyone but Hughes called the Spruce Goose.

From Los Angeles Times • May 17, 2022

In 1935, a flying boat, the China Clipper, took off from Alameda, California, carrying more than 100,000 pieces of mail on the first trans-Pacific airmail flight.

From Washington Times • Nov. 22, 2020

But how do you explain being visited by your missing brother in a dream where you took a flying boat to go look at some underwater trains without sounding delusional?

From "Amari and the Night Brothers" by B.B. Alston