bullboat

[ bool-boht ]

noun

1. a lightweight, shallow-draft boat made of hides stretched over a wooden frame and used by Plains Indians.

Word History and Origins

Origin of bullboat¹

An Americanism dating back to 1825–35; bull ¹ + boat

Example Sentences

There came a splash, a chorus of curses as a bullboat, thrown overboard upside down, slipped away in the darkness.

From Project Gutenberg

But you can't beat the bullboat for the purpose for which it was first made; that of navigating the shallower streams.

From Project Gutenberg

Pardner's waitin' near th' mouth with a bullboat.

From Project Gutenberg

Kneeling in a "bullboat," fashioned from the skin of an animal, and wielding a paddle with the dexterity only to be attained after years of practice in canoeing, a sturdily-built and thoroughly bronzed Canadian lad glanced ever and anon back along the course over which he had so recently passed; and then up at the black storm clouds hurrying out of the mysterious North.

From Project Gutenberg

And the delicious odor of that supper was enough to arouse the dormant appetite of one who had foresworn all cookery, one of these modern cranks determined to exist upon nuts and fruit, which our young friend of the bullboat certainly was not.

From Project Gutenberg