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.
The quarter boat was missing and her jolly boat was gone.
From The Pilots of Pomona by Leighton, Robert
You had better take the jolly boat, and pick out twenty active fellows.
From Held Fast For England A Tale of the Siege of Gibraltar (1779-83) by Henty, G. A. (George Alfred)
The boat selected for the voyage was a small affair—something like a modern jolly boat, though of rather greater beam in proportion to its other dimensions; its length was sixteen feet, its breadth nine feet.
From The International Monthly, Volume 3, No. 1, April, 1851 by Various
For the first four hours it was doubtful whether the jolly boat, which was in davits across the stern, would last long.
From The Shellback's Progress In the Nineteenth Century by Runciman, Walter
Just get into the boat alongside, and row to the brig; and tell them to lower the jolly boat and send it alongside.
From Held Fast For England A Tale of the Siege of Gibraltar (1779-83) by Henty, G. A. (George Alfred)
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.
