Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A large merchant ship formerly used on trade routes to India.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun In general, a ship engaged in the India trade; specifically and strictly, a ship of large tonnage, formerly officered and armed by the East India Company for that trade.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun A large vessel in the India trade.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun nautical A large
ship that traded betweenBritain andIndia on behalf of the East India Company
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a large sailing ship that was engaged in the British trade with India
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
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Examples
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No shot had been fired, save the first one calling the Indiaman to stop, and the second one that drove the command home.
Carette of Sark John Oxenham 1896
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I wish you wou'd follow the same Plan in writing to me and not waite till you hear from London that the Lord Something Indiaman is to sail soon & then you finish your Epistle, with a "realy I intended to have wrote you a longer Letter but, as my Brother tells my father that there is a Ship to sail next week I have time for no more" Indeed Chuffes it is an excuse I will not admit ofbut I expect that when ever anything strikes you in the Noddle that you wish to let me knowyou will down with it once upon Paper, no trusting to Memory or Apoligy for a bad Pensend me out your Quills and I will make them for you, and you know the making of Pens is the thing I pique myself upon, as being my Forte.
Colonial Correspondence: The Letters of George Bogle from Bengal, Bhutan and Tibet, 1770-81 2000
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If a man wanted to live and die rich then all he needed to do was capture an Indiaman, which is why the great ships sailed in convoy.
Sharpe's Trafalgar Cornwell, Bernard, 1944- 2000
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The Indiaman was a twelve hundred ton ship, as large as one of the small class seventy-four in the king's service, strongly built, with lofty bulwarks, and pierced on the upper deck for eighteen guns, which were mounted on the quarter-deck and forecastle.
Newton Forster The Merchant Service Frederick Marryat 1820
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The galleon as "Indiaman" probably fed heavily into the popular image.
Archaic terminology in historical fiction Carla 2006
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"Indiaman," and for the gents in livery at the "Pocklington Arms" -- of either of which societies I should like to be a member.
The Christmas Books of Mr. M.A. Titmarsh William Makepeace Thackeray 1837
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He appears to have resented this by running away from his ship; but he did not abandon maritime pursuits, and was sent on board an East Indiaman, where he rose to the rank of third mate.
Archive 2009-03-01 2009
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The ship image, whose attribution is unknown, depicts the "True Briton," an East Indiaman.
About the Hypertext 2008
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My first voyage to India, sixteen years before, had lasted four months on a creaking East Indiaman; this time, in natty little government steam sloops, it had taken just about half that time, even with a vile journey by camel across the Suez isthmus in between.
Fiancée 2010
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A small vessel and a favouring gale conveyed him and several other military gentlemen to the Downs, where the Indiaman, which was to transport them from Europe, lay ready for their reception.
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