scow
Americannoun
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any of various vessels having a flat-bottomed rectangular hull with sloping ends, built in various sizes with or without means of propulsion, as barges, punts, rowboats, or sailboats.
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Eastern U.S. a barge carrying bulk material in an open hold.
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an old or clumsy boat; hulk; tub.
verb (used with object)
noun
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an unpowered barge used for freight; lighter
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(esp in the midwestern US) a sailing yacht with a flat bottom, designed to plane
Etymology
Origin of scow
1660–70, < Dutch schouw ferryboat
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 fate of the two men, James Harris and Gustav Lofberg, rested on an American and Canadian rescue team that coalesced about 650 feet from the scow on the Canadian shore.
From New York Times • Nov. 5, 2019
No one contemplated that our ship of state’d Become a garbage scow.
From Washington Post • Jan. 5, 2017
“I found a friend of mine who had a garbage scow and we loaded the three trucks-worth on the barge. I was out there with it. Opposite Atlantic Highlands, a few miles out.”
From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 4, 2016
He told the story of two young men - Lawrence and Wallace Goodell - who spent one summer on a flat-bottom scow, catching hundreds of pounds of clams.
From Washington Times • Mar. 21, 2015
The boat looked like a garbage scow more than anything else.
From "The Voyage Of The Frog" by Gary Paulsen
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.
