Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A light Chinese sailing vessel, built somewhat after a European model, but rigged like a junk.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Naut.) A kind of light vessel used on the coast of China, having the hull built on a European model, and the rigging like that of a Chinese junk.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun nautical A kind of light vessel used on the coast of China, having the hull built on a European model, and the rigging like that of a Chinese junk.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Portuguese

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Examples

  • The lorcha was a dismasted hull, no more, with a Filipino family and one or two men aboard to steer.

    A Woman's Impression of the Philippines Mary Helen Fee

  • A lorcha, called the Arrow, flying the British flag, had been seized by the Chinese, and the question arose as to the right of the vessel to the protection of England.

    The Grand Old Man Cook, Richard B 1989

  • The other lorcha, I was pleased to see, was floundering about with her crew at sixes and sevens.

    Flashman and the Dragon Fraser, George MacDonald, 1925- 1985

  • I said it was, and that we ought to be there tomorrow noon, and after a little more talk he said he'd better take post on the second lorcha for the night, as we had agreed, so that both vessels were under proper control.

    Flashman and the Dragon Fraser, George MacDonald, 1925- 1985

  • She squealed with laughter and plunged in, reached the lorcha in a few fast strokes, and was hauled inboard, all wet and shiny and giggling in her little loin-cloth.

    Flashman and the Dragon Fraser, George MacDonald, 1925- 1985

  • He didn't bother with a small boat, but just dropped over the side and trod water until the second lorcha came by, and he scrambled aboard.

    Flashman and the Dragon Fraser, George MacDonald, 1925- 1985

  • So I growled at her to get her lamp going and bring her pin, and she came panting as I pushed through the chick-screen to the long main hold which ran the full length of the lorcha under its flush deck.

    Flashman and the Dragon Fraser, George MacDonald, 1925- 1985

  • By God, the second lorcha was now ahead, and there was Ward at her helm; we were close in by the east bank - it must be the east, for there was the sun gleaming dully through the morning mist, the first rays turning the waters to gold around us.

    Flashman and the Dragon Fraser, George MacDonald, 1925- 1985

  • Mind you, as I leaned on the rail of the lead lorcha bearing up beyond Lintin Island two days after our picnic, with the rising sun rolling the fog-banks up the great estuary, I could honestly say it wasn't either the cash or the lady that had made me turn opium-runner.

    Flashman and the Dragon Fraser, George MacDonald, 1925- 1985

  • He sprang away from the tiller of the other lorcha, and I loosed off another shot which struck splinters from his rail; his boat yawed crazily, and in the crisis he behaved with admirable presence of mind: he was over her rail like a porpoise, taking the water clean and striking out like billyho for the bank, not a hundred yards off.

    Flashman and the Dragon Fraser, George MacDonald, 1925- 1985

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