umiak

American  

[oo-mee-ak] / ˈu miˌæk /

Or oomiak

noun

1. an Inuit or Yupik open boat that consists of a wooden frame covered with skins and provided with several thwarts: used for transport of goods and passengers.

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umiak British  

/ ˈuːmɪˌæk /

noun

1. a large open boat made of stretched skins, used by Inuit Compare kayak

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Etymology

Origin of umiak

First recorded in 1760–70, umiak is from the Inuit word umiaq “women's boat”

Example Sentences

His chronicle of a voyage in an umiak, an open skin-covered Eskimo craft, from Nome to a fragment of rock called King Island, is a masterpiece of terse narrative and clinical observation.

From Time Magazine Archive

Both bodies were wrapped in blankets, placed in a native umiak to be towed to Point Barrow.

From Time Magazine Archive

Thoroughly familiar with the native methods of life and of travel, this officer, Captain G. F. Holm, Royal Danish Navy, adopted the safest, indeed, the only, method of coast transportation—in the umiak.

From True Tales of Arctic Heroism in the New World by Greely, Adolphus W.

And at the same moment the sea was lashed into foam, but the umiak had reached the land.

From Eskimo Folk-Tales by Worster, W. J. Alexander (William John Alexander)

Thus in a few days they had their umiak filled with meat, and could go home again.

From Eskimo Folk-Tales by Worster, W. J. Alexander (William John Alexander)