steamboat
noun
a steam-driven vessel, especially a small one or one used on inland waters.
steamboats
-
pluralof steamboat.plural
The grammatical form denoting more than one person, place, thing, or idea.
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.
And in an age when many steamboats, cheaply built and poorly maintained, did, in the words of one contemporary, “a wholesale business in human slaughter,” Vanderbilt never lost a ship to fire, explosion or shipwreck.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 10, 2026
Bucky would tell you that the hotel was built in 1847 and guests originally traveled by steamboats to enjoy their holiday by the bay.
From Salon ● May 4, 2023
The lake, which was once navigated by steamboats, had evaporated into dusty salt flats after the aqueduct was completed in 1913.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 25, 2023
It contains multiple anachronistic details, such as a reference to steamboats and regulations for the care and feeding of livestock being transported through the city.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 8, 2023
“Up in the Dakotas, some of them farms are so big, they have their own stern-wheel steamboats to carry their wheat to their own elevators at Fargo,” I told Dad.
From "The Teacher’s Funeral" by Richard Peck
