boat

American  

[boht] / boʊt /

noun

• boats
  plural

1. a vessel for transport by water, constructed to provide buoyancy by excluding water and shaped to give stability and permit propulsion.

2. a small ship, generally for specialized use.

   a fishing boat.

3. a small vessel carried for use by a large one, as a lifeboat.

   They lowered the boats for evacuation.

4. a ship.

5. a vessel of any size built for navigation on a river or other inland body of water.

6. a serving dish resembling a boat.

   a gravy boat;

   a celery boat.

7. Ecclesiastical. a container for holding incense before it is placed in the censer.

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verb (used without object)

• boats,
  present (3rd person singular)
• boated,
  past participle,  past
• boating
  present participle

1. to go in a boat.

   We boated down the Thames.

verb (used with object)

• boats,
  present (3rd person singular)
• boated,
  past participle,  past
• boating
  present participle

1. to transport in a boat.

   They boated us across the bay.

2. to remove (an oar) from the water and place athwartships.

idioms

1. in the same boat, in the same circumstances; faced with the same problems.

   The new recruits were all in the same boat.

2. miss the boat,

   1. to fail to take advantage of an opportunity.

      He missed the boat when he applied too late to get into college.

   2. to miss the point of; fail to understand.

      I missed the boat on that explanation.

3. rock the boat. rock.

boat British  

/ bəʊt /

noun

1. a small vessel propelled by oars, paddle, sails, or motor for travelling, transporting goods, etc, esp one that can be carried aboard a larger vessel

2. (not in technical use) another word for ship

3. navy a submarine

4. a container for gravy, sauce, etc

5. a small boat-shaped container for incense, used in some Christian churches

6. sharing the same problems

7. See burn 1

8. to lose an opportunity

9. informal to celebrate, esp lavishly and expensively

10. informal to cause a disturbance in the existing situation

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verb

1. (intr) to travel or go in a boat, esp as a form of recreation

2. (tr) to transport or carry in a boat

boat More Idioms  

1. see burn one's bridges (boats); in the same boat; miss the boat; rock the boat.

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• boatable
  adjective
• boatless
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• boats
  plural

Participles

• boating
  present
• boated
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• boat
  simple
• boats
  simple
• have boated
  perfect
• has boated
  perfect
• am boating
  progressive
• are boating
  progressive
• is boating
  progressive
• have been boating
  perfect progressive
• has been boating
  perfect progressive

Past

• boated
  simple
• had boated
  perfect
• was boating
  progressive
• were boating
  progressive
• had been boating
  perfect progressive

Future

• will boat
  simple
• will have boated
  perfect
• will be boating
  progressive
• will have been boating
  perfect progressive

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Etymology

Origin of boat

First recorded before 900; Middle English boot (noun), Old English bāt; cognate with Old Norse beit

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Explanation

A boat is a water craft, a vessel that floats and can be propelled through the water. If you buy a private island, you'll need a boat to get there. A lobster boat travels across ocean bays powered by a small motor, and a sail boat is moved by the wind hitting its sails at a particular angle. A much smaller type of boat is a gravy boat, a boat-shaped serving dish that holds a sauce. Boat is sometimes used as a verb, meaning "to go out in a boat." The Old English root is bat, "ship or vessel," from a Germanic source.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

boat boats boated boating

Although its direction was not known, the boat was evidently traveling along the coast of southern Turkey.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 26, 2026

But their attempt to run away together—both understand their relationship would fuel scandal in the town—goes unhappily awry, and Benjamin ends up finding work on a fishing boat.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 22, 2026

Items belonging to a fishing boat that vanished off the north coast of the Isle of Lewis last week have been recovered as the search for the vessel and two missing crew members continues.

From BBC ● Oct. 22, 2026

Some coverage of the Goldman Sachs survey implies that since low-income and high-income families experience similar levels of unease about their finances, they’re all in the same boat.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 20, 2026

How could she possibly have known about the boys from the Forty-Eighth, the boat, the call, my error.

From "The Brightwood Code" by Monica Hesse

Stumpf said the aquatic mammals were tracked throughout the day and first spotted by boats off the coast of Newport Beach.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 28, 2026

People would usually be able to take boats out onto the lake and an active model boat club is in the area.

From BBC ● Oct. 23, 2026

It also has turned to guerrilla tactics long employed by Yemen’s Houthis to target traffic around the mouth of the Red Sea, deploying spotters in small fishing boats and sending fighters out onto the water.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 21, 2026

The signs were arguably sufficient to recommend keeping boats and ships out of the fjord.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 19, 2026

Even though the boats were fully loaded, why not dive down and see what kind of sponges grew beneath these unfamiliar waters?

From "Shipwrecked!" by Martin W. Sandler

This summer, ProPublica journalists hiked and boated across Rubkona County, the epicenter of South Sudan’s outbreak and home to the country’s largest refugee camp, to interview families that the U.S. cut off from help.

From Salon ● Dec. 16, 2025

Wallace encouraged people — even those who have boated a lot — to hire a seasoned captain when they visit Tahoe and want to get out on the water.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 24, 2025

"Nowadays it has to be boated off. It's just not realistic at all. But it captures everyone's imagination."

From BBC ● May 5, 2025

She took ballet; played basketball with her mother, brother and cousins; and boated and swam in the sea on weekends.

From New York Times ● Mar. 15, 2022

With the Marine Jungschar, the naval branch of the Hitler Youth, Herbert boated on the waters in Tetlow Park in eastern Berlin.

From "Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler's Shadow" by Susan Campbell Bartoletti

Studland Bay Marine Partnership is made up of conservation charities, boating organisations, academics, statutory bodies, community groups and businesses, with the aim of restoring Studland's seagrass.

From BBC ● Sep. 26, 2026

Ms. Brauer, a scrappy, dyslexic young woman from a working-class Long Island, N.Y., family, discovered boating in college.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 24, 2026

When she feels up to it, they go boating or ride bicycles to nearby beaches.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 13, 2026

Residents of the city, which is nestled in the Appalachian foothills with the Tennessee River running through the heart of a lively downtown, enjoy a variety of outdoor activities including hiking, biking and boating.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 25, 2026

One of Farmer’s brothers, Jeff, later would say that he’d known all along their father didn’t know much about navigation, no matter how many boating magazines the Warden had read.

From "Mountains Beyond Mountains" by Tracy Kidder and Michael French

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