pilot boat
Americannoun
Etymology
Origin of pilot boat
First recorded in 1580–90
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.
One Massachusetts captain, having smashed the New York-to-Liverpool record with a time of 13 days, arrives to find that no pilot boat would brave the fog to guide him into the harbor.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 8, 2025
"I got my arm into the life buoy and the skipper went full ahead and pulled me out of the way. They got me on to the pilot boat."
From BBC ● Dec. 19, 2022
The only physical improvements the agency claims to have made at the port are “electrical lines, security wall upgrades, a pilot boat and a security card machine”.
From The Guardian ● Oct. 11, 2019
The Sichem Challenge slowed, and Mr. Buchanan squeezed the pilot boat against the port side of the tanker.
From New York Times ● Aug. 20, 2016
Oars rattled in oarlocks and the distant buzz of a pilot boat wafted across the water to them.
From "Ship Breaker" by Paolo Bacigalupi
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.
