cockboat

[ kok-boht ]

noun

1. a small boat, especially one used as a tender.

cockboat

/ ˈkɒkəlˌbəʊt; ˈkɒkˌbəʊt /

noun

1. any small boat

Word History and Origins

Origin of cockboat¹

1400–50; late Middle English cokboot, variant of cogboot, equivalent to cog boat, ship (akin to Old Norse kuggi small ship) + boot boat

Word History and Origins

Origin of cockboat¹

C15 cokbote, perhaps ultimately from Late Latin caudica dug-out canoe, from Latin caudex tree trunk

Example Sentences

Looking backwards we could see over the tops of the trees to the sea, the Gannet looking like a cockboat in the distance.

From Project Gutenberg

But so it is; the cockboat may be more to a man than was once the three-decker.

From Project Gutenberg

To overset a Flame is a fine Way of speaking, and as easily to be conceiv'd, as to overset a Cockboat or a Wherry.

From Project Gutenberg

"It would be more candid as well as more dignified," he said, "to avow our principles explicitly to Russia and France than to come in as a cockboat in the wake of the British man-of-war."

From Time Magazine Archive

Nay, even the very roof and ceilings were become warehouses, so that once I espied so great a thing as a ship's cockboat slung from the rafters above our heads, and once rasped my cheek against the dried slough of a monstrous water-snake that some adventurer had doubtless brought home from the Indies.

From Project Gutenberg