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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.


umiak British  
/ ˈuːmɪˌæk /

noun

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

"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

Etymology

Origin of umiak

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

See Examples For:

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

“An umiak and kayaks,” she cried to her husband.

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

And when he had straightened out all their arms, he went out of that house the strongest of all, and went out to his umiak and rowed away southwards with his wife.

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

When Kovik appeared in his umiak with his squat wife and family, there was a general handshaking.

From The Whelps of the Wolf by George P. Marsh

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