umiak

American  

[oo-mee-ak] / ˈu miˌæk /

Or oomiak

noun

1. an Inuit or Yupik open boat that consists of a wooden frame covered with skins and provided with several thwarts: used for transport of goods and passengers.

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umiak British  

/ ˈuːmɪˌæk /

noun

1. a large open boat made of stretched skins, used by Inuit Compare kayak

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Etymology

Origin of umiak

First recorded in 1760–70, umiak is from the Inuit word umiaq “women's boat”

Example Sentences

Both bodies were wrapped in blankets, placed in a native umiak to be towed to Point Barrow.

From Time Magazine Archive

His chronicle of a voyage in an umiak, an open skin-covered Eskimo craft, from Nome to a fragment of rock called King Island, is a masterpiece of terse narrative and clinical observation.

From Time Magazine Archive

As soon as they came to the place, they cut the moorings of the umiak, and hastily made all ready, and rowed out to the farthest islands.

From Eskimo Folk-Tales by Worster, W. J. Alexander (William John Alexander)

Thus in a few days they had their umiak filled with meat, and could go home again.

From Eskimo Folk-Tales by Worster, W. J. Alexander (William John Alexander)

The larger umiak, or women's boat, is now scarcely met with in Labrador.

From With the Harmony to Labrador Notes of a Visit to the Moravian Mission Stations on the North-East Coast of Labrador by La Trobe, Benjamin