释义 |
bumboat|ˈbʌmbəʊt| Also 8 bomb-boat. [app. f. bum n.1 + boat n. (Cf. bumbay ‘a quagmire from stagnating water, dung, etc., such as is often seen in farm-yards’ Suffolk Words from Cullum Hist. Hawsted 1815; also Ray S. & E.C. Words.)] †1. A scavenger's boat, employed to remove ‘filth’ from ships lying in the Thames, as prescribed by the Trinity House Bye Laws of 1685. (These ‘dirt-boats’ used also to bring vegetables etc. for sale on board the ships, whence sense 2.)
1671Proclam. Chas. II, 6 Apr., Whereas several Dirt-Boats, and Bum-Boats..under pretence of Fetching Dirt, and Furnishing necessary Provisions on Board such Ships as are in the River, do commit divers Thefts and Robberies. 1685By-Laws Trinity House No. 6 Dirtboats, otherwise called Bumboats. 2. ‘A boat employed to carry provisions, vegetables, and small merchandise for sale to ships, either in port or lying at a distance from the shore.’ Smyth Sailor's Word-bk.
1769Falconer Dict. Marine (1789) Bumboat, a small boat used to sell vegetables, etc. to ships lying at a distance from the shore. 1833Marryat P. Simple (1863) 407 All the bumboats were very anxious to supply the ship. 1863Life Man-of-War in Cornh. Mag. Feb., The bumboat has come alongside..with oranges and grapes, loaf-bread..herrings, and similar dainties. 3. attrib., as bumboat act, bumboat man, bumboat people, bumboat woman.
1714Lond. Gaz. No. 5245/3 John Daniel, an Alehouse⁓keeper and Bomb-boat Man at Woolwich. 1820Broderip & Bingham Rep. I. 433 The vessel..was seized..under the Bum-boat act (2 Geo. III. c. 28). 1835Marryat Jac. Faithf. xxxvii, We purchased some sheets of paper from the bumboat people. 1884Littell's Living Age 700 Fruits from..the bumboat-woman at a seaport. Hence bumboating vbl. n.
1841Marryat Poacher xxxvii, It was only bumboating on a large scale. |