sampan
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of sampan
First recorded in 1610–20; from Chinese sān bǎn “three-plank (boat)”
Vocabulary lists containing sampan
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
He said military personnel had spotted another Chinese sampan crew poisoning waters near the shoal last month, and that samples later tested positive for cyanide.
From BBC • Apr. 13, 2026
Philippine Navy spokesman Rear Adm Roy Vincent Trinidad said Filipino troops had seized 10 bottles of cyanide from sampan boats allegedly launched from Chinese fishing vessels in February, July and October last year.
From BBC • Apr. 13, 2026
A short sampan ride takes visitors across an eddy of the Shan Pui River.
From New York Times • Nov. 17, 2018
The fictional author forces the reader and himself through a "parade of memories" that "push upstream like a sampan toward the past."
From Time Magazine Archive
“I just left the baskets on the doorstep and ran. I ran all the way to the river and rented a sampan to take me across. Then I walked from the Bund.”
From "Homesick" by Jean Fritz
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
