jolly boat
Americannoun
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a light boat carried at the stern of a sailing vessel.
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a small pleasure sailboat for use in sheltered waters.
noun
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a small boat used as a utility tender for a vessel
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a small sailing boat used for pleasure
Etymology
Origin of jolly boat
1720–30; jolly < Danish jolle yawl 1
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.
Once on the glorious anniversary of Yankee Independence, we made the lease of a jolly boat.
From Los Gringos Or, An Inside View of Mexico and California, with Wanderings in Peru, Chili, and Polynesia by Wise, H. A. (Henry Augustus)
The jolly boat has returned here, bringing the surviving lascars.
From Life of William Carey by Smith, George
There was also some difficulty in procuring new boats for the ship; but Captain Flett at last found a jolly boat, and one morning early I took it out to the Lydia.
From The Pilots of Pomona by Leighton, Robert
They escaped to the jolly boat, saving nothing but their lives.
From The Life of Francis Marion by Simms, William Gilmore
I never saw guns better aimed than ours were, except once, and that was when I was attacking a Spanish line-of-battle ship in a jolly boat.
From Marmaduke Merry A Tale of Naval Adventures in Bygone Days by Kingston, William Henry Giles
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.
