| 释义 |
▪ I. boat, n.|bəʊt|
Forms: 1–3 bát, 4 bot, 4–5 boot, (4–6 boote), 4–7 bote, 6–7 boate, (6 botte, boitt, 7 Sc. pl. bottes), 6– boat; north. 4–6 bate, 5–6 bait, bayt, (5 pl. bat(t)is).
[OE. bát: the subsequent phonetic history in Eng. is perfectly normal; but the origin of the OE. word, and its relation to forms in other languages presents difficulties.
OE. bát (unless onomatopœic) must have been either the regular representative of an OTeut. *baito-, (-u-), or an adoption of a word bāt from some other language. (1) The chief relevant fact in Teutonic is that ON. had also bát-r in the sense ‘small boat’, whence regularly Sw. båt, Da. baad ‘boat’. But the OE. and ON. words were not cognate, since the ON. form corresponding to OE. bát would have been *beit-r, while the OE. form corresp. to ON. bát-r (= OTeut. *bæ̂to-) would have been *bǽt, *bét, giving mod.Eng. *beet. In one of the two langs., therefore, bát- must have been adopted from the other: the accessible evidence is on the whole in favour of its priority in OE. This is further favoured by the actual occurrence in ON. of a neuter n. beit ‘boat’ (Hávamál st. 90, etc.), which, exc. in gender, is the required form corresponding to OE. bát, from OTeut. *baito-. It is therefore highly probable that the OE. bát is original, and bátr an ON. adoption of it. (2) In any case the absence of the word from continental West Germanic is remarkable: here an OTeut. *baito- would have given OS. bêt, Du. beet, OHG. beiȥ, Ger. beisz; an OTeut. *bæ̂to- would have given OS. bât, Du. baat, OHG. bâz, mod.G. basz. No such forms exist; on the contrary, mod.Du., LG. and mod.G. have actually boot: of these the Ger. word is a recent adoption from LG. or Du. boot, found in early MDu. c 1250, the ō of which can be accounted for only by its adoption from early ME., or from Scand., at a date when the á of these langs. had already become |ɔː|. (3) A stem bāt- or batt- must have had an early diffusion in Romanic: cf. F. bateau, OF. batel, Pr. batelh, Cat. batell, Sp. batel, It. batello (Florio), now battello, diminutives from a primitive *bāto, batto (the latter actually used in It. in sense of ‘small sea-vessel’), OF. bat ‘small boat’ found in 12th c.; med.L. had also bātus, battus, the former app. only in English documents, the latter (as well as batellus) continental. But no etymology of these is found in Romanic; on the contrary Diez can only refer them back to OE. bát: this is extremely improbable; and the difficulties are only a little lessened by substituting ON. bátr as the presumed source. Moreover this derivation requires *bātus as the original type, while the form really indicated by OF., med.L., and It. is *battus. Unless the latter could be a neben-form of bātus (cf. It. tutto, beside L. tōtus, Sp. todo etc.), it could hardly have any etymological connexion with English-Norse bát-. A Celtic source has been frequently attributed to both the OE. and Romanic words; but Celtic scholars now know that the cited OWelsh bat, Welsh bad, is merely an adoption of the OE. word. (4) Franck points out that, in MDu., boot fem. meant ‘cask’, as in mod.Sc. meal-boat = ‘cask, barrel, tub’, prob. identical with F. botte, Pr. and Sp. bota, It. botte, med. Lat. bota, butta, butt; and suggests that this may bear at least upon the Du. and LG. boot: it is true that words of general sense like ‘vessel’, vaisseau, and specific words like ‘tub’, have been applied to ships and boats; but besides that no vestige of any such sense as ‘cask, tub’, etc. appears either in ON. or OE. bát, these last could in no way be connected in form with bota, botta, or butta. (5) The conclusions at present tenable are, therefore, that apparently there was an OTeut. *baito-, preserved only in ON. beit and OE. bát; that the latter was also adopted in ON. as bát-r, and that either from Eng. or Norse the word was adopted in Low Ger. and Dutch, as bôt, boot. But that the Romanic batto, bāto, and its family, arose out of the English-Norse word is very doubtful.]
1. a. A small open vessel in which to traverse the surface of water, usually propelled by oars, though sometimes by a sail.
891O.E. Chron. (Parker MS.) Þrie Scottas cuomon to ælfrede cyninge on anum bate. Ibid. 1046 (Laud MS.) His sciperes wurpon hine on þone bat, and..reowan to scipe. a1225Juliana 60 Buten brugge ant bat. 1330R. Brunne Chron. 156 Philip..To boote mad him bone. c1340Cursor M. 13280 (Fairf.) Petre & Andrew..laft þaire batis [Cott. scipps, Gött. schippis] twin. 1375Barbour Bruce iii. 408 Na bait fand thai. 1423Jas. I King's Q. xvii, My feble bote full fast to stere and rowe. 1513Douglas æneis iv. xi. 8 Othir schip or bait. 1552Lyndesay Monarche ii. 3039 Twoo thousand boittis with hir scho careis. 1591Shakes. 1 Hen. VI, iv. vi. 33 To hazard all our liues in one small Boat. 1616R. C. Times' Whis. v. 2266 Being olde, One foote already within Charons bote. 1798Coleridge Anc. Mar. vii. vii, The boat came close beneath the ship. 1850Tennyson In Mem. cxxi. iv, The market boat is on the stream.
b. Extended to various vessels either smaller than, or in some way differing from, a ‘ship’; esp. small sailing vessels employed in fishing, or in carrying mails and packets, and small steamers. (Sometimes applied to large ocean steamers, though these are more properly ‘steam ships’.)
1571Hanmer Chron. Irel. (1633) 140 Some thirteene botes out of Waterford. 1703Lond. Gaz. No. 3888/4 Boats to Convoy Letters and Pacquets between England and the Islands of Barbadoes, Antego, etc. 1764Tucker in Phil. Trans. LIV. 83 At King-Road..the officers observed the king's boat to float suddenly. 1861Sala Tw. round Clock 14 Boats from Hartlepool, Whitstable, Harwich, Great Grimsby, and other English seaports..They are all called ‘boats’, though many are of a size that would render the term ‘ship’..far more applicable. 1880Whitaker's Alman. Advts. 22 White Star Line..the Boats are uniform and vary very little in point of speed. Mod. To take the boat to Gravesend. Waiting at Margate Pier for the ‘husbands' boat’ on Saturday afternoon.
c. With qualifications: as cock-boat, ferryboat, gunboat, steamboat, etc., q.v.
d. Phrases. to take boat: to embark in a boat. to have an oar in another's boat, in every boat, etc. (fig.): to meddle with other people's affairs, to be a busybody. to be in the same boat (fig.): to be in the same position or circumstances. to sail in the same boat (fig.): to pursue the same course, act together. to miss the boat (see miss v.1). to rock the boat (fig.): to disturb the equilibrium (of a situation, etc.).
1548Hall Chron. (1809) 279 Duke Charles of Burgoyne..would nedes have an Ower in the Erle of Warwickes boate. 1576Lambarde Peramb. Kent (1826) 179 Thomas Becket secretly tooke boate at Rumney. 1577Holinshed Chron. II. 173 The pope must have his ore in everie mans bote, his spoone in everie mans dish. 1584Hudson Judith iii. 352 (D.) Haue ye pain? so likewise pain haue we; For in one boat we both imbarked be. 1668R. Lestrange Vis. Quev. (1708) 30 Medlers..that will have an Oar in every Boat. 1845Dickens Cricket on Hearth i. 40 You'll come to the wedding? We're in the same boat. 1857Hughes Tom Brown 131 ‘But my face is all muddy’, argued Tom. ‘Oh, we're all in one boat for that matter.’ 1921H. Crane Let. 17 Oct. (1965) 68 He..made me feel myself, as a poet, as being ‘in the same boat’ with him. 1931F. L. Allen Only Yesterday vi. 156 Unfortunate publicity had a tendency to rock the boat. 1944Auden For Time Being (1945) iii. 33 Some stranger vision of the large loud liberty violently rocking yet never, he is persuaded, finally upsetting the jolly crowded boat. 1958Punch 15 Jan. 111/1 The trouble with these people who nail their colours to the mast—they always rock the boat.
e. Short for boat-race b, rhyming slang for ‘face’.
1958F. Norman Bang to Rights 35 As soon as he had stripped this crank down the boat. 1962R. Cook Crust on its Uppers i. 26 We've seen the new boat of the proletariat, all gleaming eyes.
2. A vessel or utensil resembling a boat in shape:
a. A dish used to serve sauces, etc. in.
1684Lond. Gaz. No. 1990/4 A Silver Tankard..and a silver Boat and silver Spoons. 1796H. Glasse Cookery iii. 18 Make some good apple-sauce, and send up in a boat. 1834D. Fox Pregnancy 102 The child should be obliged to receive its food in this manner, instead of from a spoon or boat. 1875Chamb. Jrnl. No. 133. 13 There being some sauce in the boat.
b. ‘The vessel that holds the incense before it is put into the censer.’ Lee Direct. Angl. 352.
3. Comb., chiefly attrib., as boat-bedding, boat-builder, boat-building, boat-hand [hand n. 8], boat-head, boat-hire, boat-keeper, boat-load, boat-pole, boat-race, boat-racing, boat-rowing, boat-shop, boat-side, boat-song, boat-work; boat-green, boat-less, boat-like, boat-shaped adjs.; boat-fashion, boat-wise advs.; also boat-axe Archæol. [Sw. båtyx], a boat-shaped battle-axe of the neolithic period in Scandinavia, applied attrib. to the culture characterized by these axes and to the people of this culture; boat-bearer, a man or boy who carries the incense-boat, in attendance on the thurifer; boat-bone, a bone of the carpus and tarsus, os naviculare; boat-boy, (a) a boy engaged to help to manage a boat; (b) a boy who carries an incense-boat; boat-bridge, a bridge of boats; boat-car, (a) a wheeled car used for launching or beaching a boat; (b) an airship-car built like a boat; boat-chain, a chain by which a boat is moored; boat-cloak, a large cloak worn by officers on duty at sea; boat-cradle [cradle n. 9], a cradle for holding a boat; boat-deck, the deck of a ship from which lifeboats are launched; boat-drill, practice by a ship's crew and passengers in the launching and manning of lifeboats; boat-express, an express train timed to meet a boat; boat-hat = boater 2; † boat-haw (see quot.); boat-hook, an iron hook and spike fixed at the end of a long pole, by means of which a boat is pulled towards, or pushed off from, any fixed object; boat-house, a house communicating with the water, in which boats are kept; boat-insect, the boat-fly; boat-launch, a place or contrivance for launching a boat; boatlift chiefly U.S. [after air-lift 2], a transportation of persons, etc., by boat, esp. during an emergency; spec. applied to the transportation of refugees in small boats from Cuba to the U.S. in the early 1980s; cf. sea-lift s.v. sea n. 23 a; also as v. trans., to transport by boat; boat-master, the captain of a boat; boat neck(-line) = bateau (neck-)line; cf. boat-shaped; boat people n. pl., (a) (any of) a number of peoples of S. and E. China and of S.E. Asia who live in boats; (b) a colloq. name for refugees (esp. from Vietnam and S.E. Asia) who fled their country by putting out to sea in small boats; boat-plug, a plug in the bottom of a boat to let water out when on shore; boat-quarters, the quarters occupied by members of the crew detailed to man the boats; boat-race, (a) a race between rowing crews; spec. a race between crews of the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, rowed annually over a course from Putney to Mortlake; also attrib.; (b) Rhyming slang for ‘face’; boat-rope (see quot.); boat-setter, a steersman; boat-shaped a., shaped like a boat; esp. applied to a wide neck-line curving downwards from the shoulders; boat-shell, the genus Cymba of molluscs; boat-slide, a double inclined plane (with rollers), over which a boat may be drawn, instead of passing through a lock; boat-slip = boat-launch; boat-sponge, a fine sponge of the Bahamas and Florida (see quot.); boat-steerer (see quot. 1845); boat-stretcher = stretcher n. 7; boat-tail, a genus of birds (see quot.); boat-train, a railway train timed to meet a boat, a tidal train; † boat-ward, a boat-keeper; boat-wright, a boat-builder; boat-yard (orig. U.S.), a yard in which boats are built and stored. Also boat-bill, boat-fly, boatful, boatswain, boat-woman, q.v.
1919Jrnl. R. Anthrop. Inst. XLIX. 197 Almgren has shown{ddd}that Scandinavian culture of a type which he calls båtyx or *boat-axe culture, which is found in the passage-graves of Sweden, had reached the coastal areas of Finland before the close of the Neolithic Period. 1957Childe Dawn Europ. Civilization (ed. 6) ix. 162 The distribution of these graves..leaves no doubt that the Boat-axe folk were intruders.
1899P. Dearmer Parson's Handbk. 128 The thurifer and *boat-bearer enter with the censer and boat. 1918A. Fortescue Cerem. Rom. Rite 25 note, The boat-bearer will stand or kneel at the thurifer's left.
1615Crooke Body of Man 1007 The outside of this *Boatebone is large, round and sinuated..It..endeth into an internall narrow processe [Fig. 10], resembling the prow of a ship.
1889F. E. Gretton Memory's Harkback 78 One day I set out with a *boat-boy to sail and row to Ely. 1902P. Dearmer Parson's Handbk. (ed. 4) 245 There is no English authority for a ‘boat-boy’ to accompany the thurifer.
1794J. B. S. Morritt Let. 22 May (1914) ii. 29 The Danube..which we crossed on one of the ponts volants or *boat bridges you have heard me mention as on the Rhine. 1959E. Pound Thrones xcvi. 9 By the boat-bridge over Euphrates.
1679Bedloe Popish Plot 19 A Fire.. which began..in a *Boat-Builders-yard. 1708Sewall Diary (1879) II. 236 A smith's shop..and a Boat-builder's Shed. 1878Harper's Mag. Feb. 324/2 The inhabitants are fishermen, farmers, and boat-builders. 1963Times 24 Apr. 17/3 The film tells the story of a firm of family boatbuilders.
1780in Virginia State P. (1875) I. 391 It is absolutely necessary that the ‘*Boat-building business’ be pushed. 1863Fawcett Pol. Econ. i. v. (1876) 57 Boat-building has not hitherto required any great division of labour.
1907Westm. Gaz. 11 Sept. 8/3 A dozen soldiers hung on by the *boat-car..to keep it down. 1909Daily Chron. 1 June 1/2 The two boat-cars which carry the engines. 1948R. de Kerchove Internat. Maritime Dict. 69/1 Boat cradle.
1773Gentl. Mag. XLIII. 144 All hid in a captain's *boat-cloak.
1821Shelley Fugitives, One *boat-cloak did cover The loved and the lover.
1960Guardian 19 Sept. 2/4 For sailing families, *boat-cradle, mast support, and long tow-bar can be bought as extras [to caravans].
1927G. Bradford Gloss. Sea Terms 17/1 *Boat Deck, that upon which the lifeboats are secured. 1938British Birds XXXII. 113 Two adult starlings with one young one..settled on the boat-deck.
1906Act 6 Edward VII xlviii. §9 The Master of every British ship shall enter..a statement..of every occasion on which *boat drill is practised on board the ship. 1943H. Pearson Conan Doyle x. 139 Unfortunately [on the Titanic] there had been neither boat-muster nor boat-drill.
1910Daily Chron. 9 Apr. 1/4 A *boat-express passenger. 1911Fletcher & Kipling School Hist. England xii. 247 The boat-express is waiting your command!
1821Deb. Congress I. 46 This admiralty jurisdiction had done much to ruin those who were engaged in..[steamboat] navigation, by making the *boat-hands unfaithful. 1936Discovery Dec. 380/1 There had been a great demand for boat-hands.
1889F. E. Gretton Memory's Harkback 310 The dandy of that time in Anglesea *boat hat, blue coat with brass buttons, high velvet collar, and swallow-tails.
1766Entick London IV. 365 The church..took its..name from a *boat-haw, or boat-builder's-yard.
1832Tennyson Lady of Shalott iv. 24 As the *boat-head wound along, The willowy hills and fields among.
c1440Promp. Parv. 45 *Boothyr, potomium. 1675Hobbes Odyss. (1677) 188 Somewhat else boat-hire to pay.
1611Cotgr., Havet..a *boat-hooke, a pole hauing a hooke at th' ende. 1840R. Dana Bef. Mast. xxiii. 71 The bow-man had charge of the boat-hook and painter.
1722Swift Let. 22 Dec. (1963) II. 440 Is this a Time to build *Boat-Houses, or pay for Carriage? 1801D. Wordsworth Grasmere Jrnl. 8 Dec. in Jrnls. (1941) I. 89 Mary and William walked to the boat house at Rydale. 1824Miss Mitford Village Ser. i. (1863) 90 A point of view presenting the boat-house, the water, the poplars. 1925Dreiser Amer. Tragedy (1926) iii. xix. 230 And next to him, the boathouse-keeper who had rented him the boat.
1769Falconer Dict. Marine (1789) *Boat-Keeper, one of the rowers, who remains..to take care of any boat. 1792Gentl. Mag. LXII. i. 270 The natives..stole away the cutter one night, murdered the boat-keeper who was in her.
1872H. W. Taunt Sh. Guide Thames 41 There is a *boat-launch here..It consists of a series of rollers down an incline.
1884St. Nicholas II. 373 Left *boatless on a desert-isle.
1980Washington Post 25 Apr. 1/5 The refugee *boatlift from Castro's Cuba continued to wash into this tropical port [sc. Key West, Florida] today. 1983Christian Science Monitor 4 Nov. b6 A murderer boatlifted from Cuba..drives a Trans-Am and works as a male stripper. 1985N.Y. Times 28 May a19/2 Although there is a warning system..there are no bridges or boatlifts to carry them to safety on the mainland.
1630Drayton Noah's Flood (R.) His [the swan's] *boat-like breast.
1680in New Castle (Pennsylvania) Court Rec. (1904) 442 Wee have sent away a *boat load. 1745J. MacSparran Letter Book (1899) 27 In the last Boat-load..I lost my dear Servant. 1807R. Southey Lett. from England (1951) 480 Here they are selling the sublime and beautiful by the boat-load! 1956K. Clark Nude iii. 76 Boat-loads of tourists.
[1932R. Lehmann Invit. Waltz i. iii. 50 What about the bodice, now? V, rounded, boat, or square?] 1960Times 18 Jan. 15/5 There are sweaters with V necks, and wide *boat necks. 1968Woman 14 Dec. 8/2 Cuddly popover..has a wide boat neckline.
1848*Boat-people [see Tanka]. 1878J. H. Gray China II. xxix. 282 The boat people of Canton. 1935Nankai Social & Econ. Q. VIII. 250 The boat people of the Grand Canal between Tung Hsien of Hopei and Hangchow of Chekiang..have lived in boats for a considerable period, though not as long as the Tanka. 1977Chicago Tribune 2 Oct. ii. 6 Repressive rule in the south has created a new classification of refugees, ‘the boat people’. These are the thousands of families of Vietnamese..who push off in leaky boats and rafts into the South China Sea. 1979Cuisine Oct. 60/3 Hire a boatman and row out to explore the life of the Tanka boat people. 1980Time 9 June 47 Some 55,000 Haitian ‘boat people’ have made the 800-mile crossing to Florida, most of them as illegal immigrants. 1986Sydney Morning Herald 5 June 11/5 It was not possible to authenticate the boat people's stories, but members of the group spoke spontaneously and emotionally.
1836–9Todd Cycl. Anat. & Phys. II. 73/2 A person having a heavy *boat-pole in his hands.
1904Westm. Gaz. 29 Dec. 8/2 The crew were kept at *boat-quarters in readiness for immediate launching.
1791H. Walpole Let. 23 Aug. (1944) XI. 341 On Monday was the *boat-race. I was in the great room..to see the boats start. 1834Bell's Life in London 25 May 2/5 We are sorry to state that the proposed boat race between the two Universities will not take place. 1861Hughes Tom Brown Oxf. I. xiii. 244 To get a man into training for a boat-race now-a-days. 1882Black Shandon Bells xxiii, At the Bell Inn at Henley, when all the confusion of the boat-races was about. 1889E. Dowson Let. 24 Mar. (1967) 54, I am sick of 'varsity men & shall leave on Friday for Brighton & so escape whiskey & whores on boat race night. 1914G. B. Shaw Fanny's First Play 11, Everyone said it was a bit of English fun, and talked about last year's boat-race night when it had been a great deal worse. 1958F. Norman Bang to Rights 36 A big bandage round his thumb and a big smile on his boat race. 1959I. & P. Opie Lore & Lang. School-children xvi. 349 Until the last war the event which most excited children's loyalties was the Boat Race.
1831Disraeli Yng. Duke, There was no end to *boat-racing.
1627Capt. Smith Seaman's Gram. vi. 28 The *Boat rope is that which the ship doth tow her Boat by, at her sterne.
1840Marryat Poor Jack vi, The *boatsetter dodged him.
1871Alabaster Wheel of Law 269 *Boat shops..moored in close lines on one of the smaller canals.
1882H. W. Taunt Sh. Guide Thames 4 Iffley Lock..a new *boat slide on the mill stream..saves waste of time for small boats.
1886Act 49 Vict. xvii. 7 The Commission may construct..any pier, quay, *boat-slip, or landing-place.
1818Scott Hrt. Midl. xlvi, The..melancholy *boat-song of the rowers, coming on the ear with softened and sweeter sound.
1785Daily Universal Register 1 Jan. 3/2 *Boat-shaped snuffer pans. 1855C. Kingsley Glaucus 159 That wondrous bug the Notonecta,..rowing about his boat-shaped body. 1883S. Kent in A. J. Adderley Fisheries Bahamas 47 The so-called Velvet, Abacco-velvet, or *Boat-sponge (Spongia equina, var. meandriniformis). 1937E. V. Gordon tr. Shetelig & Falk's Scandinavian Archaeol. v. 68 The boat-shaped battle-axe, which appears in the later part of the passage-grave period. 1959Times 24 Aug. 6/6 The dresses, with boat-shaped necks and bell-shaped skirts. Ibid. 26 Sept. 8/3 A gown of white grosgrain with a boat-shaped neckline.
1845E. J. Wakefield Adv. N.Z. I. xi. 317 The *boat-steerer pulls the oar nearest the bow of the boat, fastens to the whale with the harpoon, and takes his name from having to steer the boat under the headsman's directions while the latter kills the whale. 1851Melville Moby Dick I. xxvi. 188 His boat-steerer or harpooner.
1888W. B. Churchward Blackbirding xii. 220 If they tried to shirk rowing, the chap in the bows or stern would fetch them a crack with the *boat-stretcher.
1868Wood Homes without H. xxv. 473 A group of birds..scientifically known as Quiscalinae. They are also called *Boat-tails because their tail-feathers are formed so as to take the shape of a canoe.
1884Pall Mall G. 3 Apr. 8/1 He proceeded at once to Victoria by *boat train.
c1425Wyntoun Cron. vi. xvi. 63 Scho a *Batward eftyr þat Tyl hyr spowsyd Husband gat.
1697W. Dampier Voy. (1729) I. 29 Canoes..are nothing but the tree it self made hollow *Boat wise. 1767W. Lewis Statius' Thebaid vi. (R.) Vessels boat-wise form'd.
c1440Promp. Parv. 45 *Botwryhte [1499 botewright], navicularius. 1606Wily Beguiled in Hazl. Dodsley IX. 308, I am a boat-wrights son of Hull.
1847L. Collins Hist. Sketches Kentucky (1850) 335 West Point is situated at the mouth of Salt river..and recently there has been an extensive *boat yard established. 1960Delmar-Morgan Cruising Yacht Equipment vii. 83 Stores in boatyards..are only comparatively dry.
▪ II. boat, v.|bəʊt|
[f. prec. n.]
1. trans. To place in a boat; to carry in a boat. to boat the oars: see quot.; cf. to ship oars.
1613Sherley Trav. Persia 19 [They] left me not vntill I was boated. 1681Discourse of Tanger, 22 The Horses..were boated ashore. 1810J. T. in Risdon's Surv. Devon Introd. 33 The rubble boated out of the tunnel. 1849Blackw. Mag. LXVI. 697, I was going to be boated off to a transport. c1860H. Stuart Seaman's Catech. 6 To..toss their oars and boat them. 1867Smyth Sailor's Word-bk., To boat the oars, is to cease rowing and lay the oars in the boat.
†2. intr. To take boat: to embark. Obs.
1610J. Melvill Diary (1842) 670 No small concourse of people to sie thame boat.
3. intr. To go in a boat, to row; to conduct a freight-boat (U.S.).
1673Ray Journ. Low C. 19 We boated to Antwerp. 1842Tennyson E. Morris 108 The friendly mist of morn Clung to the lake. I boated over, ran My craft aground. 1861Sat. Rev. 14 Dec. 612 There is a large mass who..well managed, go on reading, and who form friendships and boat, and ride, and enjoy the sweet spring of their life. 1871M. Collins Mrq. & Merch. III. xiii. 301 They..boated on the river.
b. to boat it (in same sense).
1687Addr. Thanks 10 [They] would Boat it over to Lambeth. 1813Southey Life Nelson II. 110 Nelson himself saw the soundings made..boating it upon this exhausting service, day and night, till it was effected. 1853Kane Grinnell Exp. vi. (1856) 45 They boat or sledge it from post to post.
4. To go in a boat upon, sail upon, navigate.
1740–99[see boated]. 1850Carlyle Latter-d. Pamph. V. 32 Said river..can be waded, boated, swum, etc. |