canoe

[ kuh-noo ]

noun

1. any of various slender, open boats, tapering to a point at both ends, propelled by paddles or sometimes sails and traditionally formed of light framework covered with bark, skins, or canvas, or formed from a dug-out or burned-out log or logs, and now usually made of aluminum, fiberglass, etc.
2. any of various small, primitive light boats.

verb (used without object)

, ca·noed, ca·noe·ing.

1. to paddle a canoe.
2. to go in a canoe.

verb (used with object)

, ca·noed, ca·noe·ing.

1. to transport or carry by canoe.

canoe

/ kəˈnuː /

noun

1. a light narrow open boat, propelled by one or more paddles
2. another word for waka
3. in the same canoe
   of the same tribe

verb

1. to go in a canoe or transport by canoe

Derived Forms

• caˈnoeing, noun
• caˈnoeist, noun

Other Words From

• ca·noeist noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of canoe¹

1545–55; < French < Spanish canoa < Arawak; replacing canoa < Spanish

Word History and Origins

Origin of canoe¹

C16: from Spanish canoa, of Carib origin

Idioms and Phrases

Idioms

1. paddle one's own canoe, Informal.
   1. to handle one's own affairs; manage independently.
   2. to mind one's own business.

More idioms and phrases containing canoe

see paddle one's own canoe .

Example Sentences

Complimentary for guests, the Fairmont Kea Lani also offers outings on an outrigger canoe, captained by two locals.

From Washington Post

Experience the park the way explorers did 250 years ago by renting a canoe and reserving one of the park’s many frontcountry or backcountry sites.

From Outside Online

They can see how people migrated across islands and pinpoint when technologies like canoes emerged by tracking the emergence of seafaring terms.

From Popular-Science

Lower yourself into a long wooden canoe and glide past cascading waterfalls to the start of a dirt trail.

From Outside Online

They didn’t have access to tetanus shots or antibiotics, and getting to the nearest hospital entailed a day’s journey by dugout canoe, followed by another on a motorboat and another in a car.

From Popular-Science

As a boy, by the way, Pierre had set out from Florida in an unsuccessful canoe trip to Cuba!

From The Daily Beast

Our foreign policy canoe is filled to the gunnels with catch-and-release trout armed with AK-47s.

From The Daily Beast

My partner Brandon and I awake at the crack of dawn for a canoe ride on the milky blue glacial waters of Lake Louise.

From The Daily Beast

So I go out in a canoe and repeat verses over and over and try and learn poems.

From The Daily Beast

That canoe he paddles in Parks, that episode where Ron is a canoe, Nick Offerman built that canoe, for real!

From The Daily Beast

A primitive savage makes a bow and arrow in a day: it takes him a fortnight to make a bark canoe.

From Project Gutenberg

The roomy canoe, if not built for great speed, certainly was built for as much comfort as could be expected in such a craft.

From Project Gutenberg

The canoe touched the grassy bank at the edge of the old Carter place at the far end of the lake just before noon.

From Project Gutenberg

But suddenly Jessie drove her paddle deep into the water and sent the canoe in a dash to the landing.

From Project Gutenberg

Her chum came leaping up the hill behind her, having moored the canoe with one hitch.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• kayak
• outrigger