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boat people

American

plural noun

refugees who have fled a country by boat, usually without sufficient provisions, navigational aids, or a set destination, especially those who left Indochina by sea as a result of the fall of South Vietnam in 1975.

boat people British

plural noun

refugees, esp from Vietnam in the late 1970s, who leave by boat hoping to be picked up by ships of another country

"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 boat people

First recorded in 1975–80

Example Sentences

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boat people

They are part of a loose community of boat people, all of whom are outcasts in some way, living on the fringe of London in 1961.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 6, 2026

The four people killed in the Cuban shootdown included two young men -- Carlos Costa and Mario de la Pena -- who only wanted to save boat people, said Gonzalez.

From Barron's ● May 21, 2026

This was also a time when 800,000 mainly ethnic Chinese boat people fled the communist party's repressive actions, making perilous sea journeys across the South China Sea, eventually resettling in the USA, Australia or Europe.

From BBC ● Jan. 5, 2025

“Anyone that comes with a boat, people are ready to go,” he said.

From Seattle Times ● Sep. 24, 2022

Around me the newly arrived boat people talk excitedly to their friends and family, and deliver them news of relatives in Vietnam.

From "First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers" by Loung Ung

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023