boatlessadj.
/ˈbəʊtləs/, U.S. /ˈboʊtləs/ 1. Of body of water, a harbour, etc.: not used by boats; empty of boats.
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1821 W. Scott Pirate II. vi. 130 The demon..must shake his dark wings over a shipless and a boatless sea.
1822 New Monthly Mag. 5 248 It is..boatless and lifeless as if its waters were infected.
1877 Temple Bar July 395 The Serpentine was boatless, and filthy.
1915 Traffic World 3 July 27/2 In already sufficient number exists in boatless rivers and abandoned waterways.
1922 T. A. Coward Bird Haunts & Nature Memories 111 The redshank whistles as it paddles in the mud of the boatless harbour.
1990 D. McIntosh Visits 130 I noticed that most of the wharves were boatless.
2. Of a person: having no boat to use; without a boat.
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society > travel > travel by water > vessel, ship, or boat > [adjective] > without a boat
boatless1872
1872 Freeman's Jrnl. (Dublin) 27 Sept. 2/4 The Irish fisherman, boatless, gearless, helpless, stands in silent misery looking sadly over the waters.
1884 St. Nicholas 2 373 Left boatless on a desert-isle.
1921 Times 26 Mar. 5/1 Nearly every small boy had a boat to sail on the White Stone Pond, and those who were boatless paddled in the shallowest end.
1952 Oriens 5 315 The rest of the sailors—about 11,000—were boatless.
2005 Darwin Palmerston Sun (Austral.) (Nexis) 23 Mar. 12 Being boatless meant my fishing options were limited.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2012; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
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adj.1821