U-boat
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of U-boat
1910–15; < German U-Boot, short for Unterseeboot literally, undersea boat
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.
During World War II, a British cargo ship torpedoed by a German U-boat sank nearly 3 miles under the Atlantic.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 22, 2026
The first dog sled patrols began in eastern Greenland during World War II, when they discovered and helped destroy German weather stations, denying the Germans crucial information for their U-boat campaign in the Atlantic.
From Barron's • Jan. 28, 2026
But as happened elsewhere in the country, much of L.A.’s public German community went to ground after May 1915, when a German U-boat sank the British ocean liner Lusitania.
From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 8, 2025
Deciphered Enigma messages revealed details of the movements of Germany’s U-boat fleets and provided crucial information for the North African desert campaign and the Allied invasion of France.
From Seattle Times • Oct. 31, 2023
If there was an enemy U-boat out there, I wanted to see it and join the people in shaking a fist at it I was not frightened, just terribly excited.
From "The Cay" by Theodore Taylor
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.
