noun
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a boat or ship driven by steam engines
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Also called: steam box. an apparatus for steaming wooden beams and planks to make them pliable for shipbuilding
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a vessel used to cook food by steam
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slang a clash of sporting teams characterized by rough play
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of steamer
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.
See Examples For:
At one point, I realized I had forgotten to put water in said steamer — which is, you know, a steamer’s whole deal.
From Salon ● Sep. 14, 2026
With little formal education, Mulholland had left his native Ireland in his teens, worked steamer ships on the Great Lakes, labored in lumber camps and prospected for gold.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 6, 2026
These are foam or gel-filled toys of various brands shaped like bao buns, and sometimes sold in plastic replicas of bamboo steamer baskets.
From Barron's ● Jun. 5, 2026
Jim, young and idealistic, is chief mate on a steamer carrying 800 pilgrims from Singapore to Mecca.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 16, 2026
There we went on board a small coastal steamer, and Nanny was heard to say, ‘I’m sure it leaks! We shall all be food for the fishes before the day is out!’
From "Boy: Tales of a Childhood" by Roald Dahl
Portable steamers are cheap and easy to use.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 15, 2026
Seven years hence, the entrepreneurial machinist founded Moran Brothers dry dock, which over two decades built steamers; barges; and the USS Nebraska, a battleship active from 1904 to 1923.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 23, 2023
For the past 20 years she has instead worked maintaining electrical items, such as water purifiers and clothes steamers, in people's homes.
From BBC ● Dec. 14, 2022
Maybe she skimped on verbal and physical affection, favoring a love language that expressed itself in steamers full of dumplings or plates of sliced fruit.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 4, 2022
But we noted down what other foreign steamers would leave London with the same tide, and we satisfied ourselves that we knew the build and colour of each.
From "Great Expectations" by Charles Dickens
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.
