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mailboat

American  
[meyl-boht] / ˈmeɪlˌboʊt /
Or mail boat

noun

  1. a boat for transporting mail.


Etymology

Origin of mailboat

An Americanism dating back to 1785–95; mail 1 + boat

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.

Others are blue-collar communities whose lifeblood depends on fishing, farming and the groceries and fuel delivered by a weekly mailboat that is nowhere to be seen.

From Washington Post • Sep. 8, 2019

In July 1871 Morris and three companions, one of them the Icelandic scholar Eiríkr Magnússon, travelled by Danish mailboat from Edinburgh's Granton harbour to Reykjavík, a four-day journey.

From The Guardian • Mar. 27, 2010

He could have stood it had he come fresh from the sailing ships, but he frankly admitted that it was trying to a mailboat officer.

From The Secret of the Reef by Bindloss, Harold

The seas' ruler, he gazed southward over the bay, empty save for the smokeplume of the mailboat vague on the bright skyline and a sail tacking by the Muglins.

From Ulysses by Joyce, James

"There's nothing that quite fits the thing here, and from what the West-coast mailboat men told me, craw-craw must be different," he said.

From For Jacinta by Bindloss, Harold