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.
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 William Henry Giles Kingston
“Who brought ye! it was either the gig or the jolly boat; but I wasn’t on deck at the time, so I can’t upon my oath say exactly which.”
From Newton Forster The Merchant Service by Frederick Marryat
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 Walter Runciman
They escaped to the jolly boat, saving nothing but their lives.
From The Life of Francis Marion by William Gilmore Simms
The jolly boat has returned here, bringing the surviving lascars.
From Life of William Carey by George Smith
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.
