showboat

[ shoh-boht ]

See synonyms for showboat on Thesaurus.com

nounAlso showboater (for defs. 2, 3).

a boat, especially a paddle-wheel steamer, used as a traveling theater.
Informal. show-off (def. 1).

a person, especially an athlete, who performs in an ostentatiously sensational manner calculated to draw attention; show-off.

verb (used without object)

to perform or behave in an outrageous or spectacular manner.

Origin of showboat

An Americanism dating back to 1865–70; show + boat

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use showboat in a sentence

But that category is full of showy performances, and George is not the showboating role in that play.
A Tony Voter on Bryan Cranston’s Overrated LBJ, Neil Patrick Harris’s Underwhelming Hedwig | Michael Musto | June 4, 2014 | THE DAILY BEAST
What he found was extraordinary talent, topped off with all the showboating and trash talk that streetball is famous for.
Hoop Reads | Joshua Robinson | March 19, 2011 | THE DAILY BEAST

British Dictionary definitions for showboat

showboat

/ (ˈʃəʊˌbəʊt) /

noun

a paddle-wheel river steamer with a theatre and a repertory company

verb

(intr) to perform or behave in a showy and flamboyant way

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

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