Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A fore-and-aft-rigged sailing vessel having at least two masts, with a foremast that is usually smaller than the other masts.
  • noun A large beer glass, generally holding a pint or more.
  • noun A prairie schooner.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A fore-and-aft rigged vessel, formerly with only two masts, but now often with three, and sometimes with four or five.
  • noun A covered emigrant-wagon formerly used on the prairies. See prairie-schooner.
  • noun A tall glass used for liquor, especially lager-beer, and supposed to hold more than an ordinary beer-glass.

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

  • noun (Naut.) Originally, a small, sharp-built vessel, with two masts and fore-and-aft rig. Sometimes it carried square topsails on one or both masts and was called a topsail schooner. About 1840, longer vessels with three masts, fore-and-aft rigged, came into use, and since that time vessels with four masts and even with six masts, so rigged, are built. Schooners with more than two masts are designated three-masted schooners, four-masted schooners, etc. See Illustration in Appendix.
  • noun U.S. A large goblet or drinking glass, -- used for lager beer or ale.

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

  • noun nautical A sailing ship with two or more masts, all with fore-and-aft sails; if two masted, having a foremast and a mainmast.
  • noun Australia A glass of beer, of a size which varies between states (Wikipedia).
  • noun US A large goblet or drinking glass, used for lager or ale (Wikipedia).

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a large beer glass
  • noun sailing vessel used in former times

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Origin unknown.]

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Examples

  • Well, "-- she shrugged her shoulders --" the schooner is at the bottom of the sea.

    Chapter 13 2010

  • Well, "-- she shrugged her shoulders --" the schooner is at the bottom of the sea.

    The Logic of Youth 1911

  • With the aid of a single soldier, by patching together all the three, after eighteen days, he constructed a boat, forty feet in length, and six in breadth, which he termed the schooner Joliba.

    Life and Travels of Mungo Park in Central Africa Mungo Park 1788

  • The captain of a bay schooner is supposed to work with his hands just as well as the men.

    Charley's Coup 2010

  • The 100-year-old schooner is the floating home to the scientists and artists of the Cape Farewell project as we move down the west coast of Spitsbergen on our three-week venture.

    Beth Kapusta: DJ Spooky at Monaco Glacier Beth Kapusta 2010

  • The 100-year-old schooner is the floating home to the scientists and artists of the Cape Farewell project as we move down the west coast of Spitsbergen on our three-week venture.

    Beth Kapusta: DJ Spooky at Monaco Glacier Beth Kapusta 2010

  • The schooner is "in the water in working condition" but still needs repairs, said the group's intern, David T. McCourt, who recently returned from El Salvador, where the boat is docked awaiting repairs.

    Pearl Coalition aims to tell story of slave revolt, schooner's impact Christy Goodman 2010

  • It turns out that the schooner is Russian from Varna, and is called the Demeter.

    Dracula 2003

  • The patrol connects at Fort Ross with a motor schooner from the Western Arctic and with the exchange of passengers, mail and freight, an all Canadian Northwest Passage is completed.

    The Eastern Arctic Patrol 1940

  • The captain of a bay schooner is supposed to work with his hands just as well as the men.

    Charley's Coup 1905

Comments

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  • "The development of a faster fishing boat, the schooner, increased production capacity of this quick cure a cheap type of salt-cured codfish sold in the West Indies and West Africa. In 1713, the first schooner was built and launched from Eastern Point, Gloucester, by Andrew Robinson, and though there were earlier European experiments with this type of rigging, the Gloucester schooner revolutionized sailing and fishing. It was a small, sleek, two-masted vessel with fore-and-aft rigging and the ability to put a tremendous amount of canvas in topsails. The name comes from an eighteenth-century New England word, scoon, meaning "to skim lightly along the water." In full sail with a good breeze and a flat sea, heeling at a slight angle, the vessels did seem to scoon, and this remains one of the most elegant sights in the history of sailing. But often they were out on the Banks climbing up and tobogganing down swells as high as their masts."

    —Mark Kurlansky, Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World (New York: Penguin, 1997), 83

    July 15, 2009