ocean liner

noun

1. an oceangoing passenger ship, operating either as one unit of a regular scheduled service or as a cruise ship.

Word History and Origins

Origin of ocean liner¹

An Americanism dating back to 1830–40

Example Sentences

Its disruptions have increased costs for shippers, who have to deal with the inefficiencies of leaving their ocean liners idling outside of packed ports.

From Quartz

Record numbers of ocean liners are waiting offshore for berths to unload their cargo.

From Quartz

Put the pair out for a Super Bowl party, I will glom onto the snack like barnacle to an ocean liner.

From Washington Post

Opposite is a red-brick monastery leaning like an ocean liner in the snow.

From The Daily Beast

The economy is like an ocean liner that turns only very slowly.

From The Daily Beast

The slender steel shell of an ocean liner is not constructed to resist the law of gravity acting on full five thousand tons.

From Project Gutenberg

His room was as well arranged as the stateroom of the captain on an ocean liner.

From Project Gutenberg

I thought again of the ocean liner plunging in the opposite direction, and what my father was thinking at that moment.

From Project Gutenberg

And, after all, an ocean liner is from one point of view a retreat from the greater dangers of the streets of London.

From Project Gutenberg

You might as well have tried to shove in the broadside of an ocean liner as to push against that foot.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• cruise ship
• liner
• luxury liner