small craftn.
/ˌsmɔːl ˈkrɑːft/, /ˌsmɔːl ˈkraft/, U.S. /ˌsmɔl ˈkræft/, /ˌsmɑl ˈkræft/ 1. With plural agreement. Small trading vessels, boats, lighters, etc., collectively.
ΘΚΠ
society > travel > travel by water > vessel, ship, or boat > [noun] > small vessel > collectively
small craft1644
1644 H. Mainwaring Sea-mans Dict. 48 In small-craft, they have Halliards to the sprit-saile-yard.
1671 J. Baltharpe Straights Voy. 4 Of small Craft, we Aboard also, To seek Seamen oftimes do go.
1699 W. Hacke Robert's Voy. Levant 34 There is good lying for small Craft.
1703 W. Dampier Voy. New Holland ii. 53 A Place of great Trade..and abundance of small Craft, that only run to and fro on this Coast.
1796 J. Morse Amer. Universal Geogr. (new ed.) I. 150 They employ 3000 sail of small craft in this fishery.
1858 Harper's Mag. Mar. 469/1 A government store-ship and a few small craft lay near.
1884 Pall Mall Gaz. 21 Oct. 1/2 The want of efficiency of our navy [in]..what are known as small craft, that is to say, the classes of sloops, gunvessels and gun-boats.
1931 Times Lit. Suppl. 26 Mar. 246/3 After 1894 the R.M.A. were no longer sent to sea in small craft, but assigned only to first-class ships and flagships.
1976 Telegraph-Jrnl. (St. John, New Brunswick) 7 Aug. 3/3 The small craft skim the river at incredible speeds.
2004 T. Wheeler Falklands & S. Georgia 167/1 Sudden winds can blow up and can be a serious danger for small craft.
2. As a count noun. A small boat or ship.
a. In plural. Now nonstandard.
ΘΚΠ
society > travel > travel by water > vessel, ship, or boat > [noun] > small vessel
batelle1330
scafa1387
skiff1578
skippet1590
squiff1594
skift1656
small craft1676
small craft1735
runabout1898
mudboat1941
1676 G. Philips Present State Tangier 104 They have since built about five and twenty Sail of Ships.., and have at present thirty two Men of War, and three Galleys.., besides several Brigantines and small Crafts.
1744 J. Randall Syst. Geogr. xxxii. 663 The Small-crafts, that belong to this City, are chiefly employed in carrying European Goods from thence.
1794 European Mag. Aug. 154/1 Several other vessels and small crafts lying near the barge soon after took fire.
1835 R. Huish Last Voy. Sir J. Ross Arctic Regions ii. 67 An English merchant ship..surrounded by small crafts in the act of receiving her cargo.
1883 Nature 11 Oct. 577/1 The banks at the river mouth were flooded and many small crafts stranded.
1921 Rubber Age 10 Apr. 11/1 Since the first small crafts drifted down the Amazon.
1994 P. M. Marks Precious Dust (1998) iii. 100 There men hewed their own small crafts to transport them across the Strait of Georgia.
b. In singular.
ΘΚΠ
society > travel > travel by water > vessel, ship, or boat > [noun] > small vessel
batelle1330
scafa1387
skiff1578
skippet1590
squiff1594
skift1656
small craft1676
small craft1735
runabout1898
mudboat1941
1735 J. Oldmixon Hist. Eng.: William & Mary ii. 73/2 That poor Wretch, who had been Master of a small Craft..flung himself on his Belly upon the Quarter-Deck.
1769 J. Knox Hist. Jrnl. Campaigns N.-Amer. II. 364 The bay, to the bottom of which they detached a small craft to reconnoitre.
1834 F. Marryat Peter Simple II. ii. 35 We..walked along the river-side till we fell in with a small craft.
1897 R. Kipling Let. Aug. in C. E. Carrington Rudyard Kipling (1955) xi. 268 My attention is at present taken up by one small craft recently launched from my own works.
1922 E. Cunningham Regulation Guy 204 ‘There's the only boat within a mile, Cap,’ replied the watchman, pointing to a small craft at the dock's edge.
1995 I. Banks Whit (1996) iv. 69 Finding that the bottom of my small craft was sloshing with water.
2009 Nature 30 July 564/1 An 8-metre catamaran dragged behind a kite the size of a movie screen—a lot of horsepower for such a small craft.
Compounds
General attributive, as small-craft man, small-craft vessel, etc. Also figurative.
ΘΚΠ
society > travel > travel by water > vessel, ship, or boat > [adjective] > relating to small vessels
small craft1689
1689 Acct. Sea Engagement Dutch & French Fleets (single sheet) The French Fleet are totally Routed, a great many of their Men of War sunk, and others taken with a great number of their small Craft Men, that had their Land Soldiers on Board.
1693 J. Dryden tr. Juvenal in J. Dryden et al. tr. Juvenal Satires iii. 38 He..whom t'other Day A small-craft Vessel hither did convey.
1711 Ld. Shaftesbury Characteristicks III. Misc. ii. iii. 97 We Essay-Writers, are of the Small-Craft, or Galley-kind.
1832 T. Carlyle Reminisc. (1881) I. 33 On board some small-craft man of war.
1856 F. L. Olmsted Journey Slave States 143 Captain Jerry had the habit, which small-craft men are apt to get, of consulting aloud with himself.
1916 A. J. Henry et al. Weather Forecasting in United States viii. 237 Along the southern Florida coast warnings of any kind, except an occasional small-craft warning, are very infrequent.
1993 Fredericton 1993 Visitor Guide 47/2 The city of Fredericton operates a smallcraft launching facility at Carleton Park.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2012; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1644