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.
But when the boat ran aground on a sandbar, the steel cable connecting the two snapped, sending the scow — and its two crewmen — hurtling.
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
There were a few old boats moored on the next pier, one that looked like a coal scow, but nothing even vaguely romantic.
From "Bad Boy" by Walter Dean Myers
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.
