Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A small boat used to peddle provisions to ships anchored offshore.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A boat used in peddling fresh vegetables, fruit, and small wares among the vessels lying in a harbor or roadstead.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Naut.) A clumsy boat, used for conveying provisions, fruit, etc., for sale, to vessels lying in port or off shore.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun nautical a small
boat used for carryingprovisions toships lying atanchor in aharbour
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a small boat that ferries supplies and commodities for sale to a larger ship at anchor
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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The "bumboat," laden with delicious fruits and every kind of fresh provender to tempt the Blue jacket and hungry midshipman -- in my own days, utterly sick of the "salt-horse" (salt meat) and weevilly biscuit; but now, alas! the sailor is a spoilt child and quite daintily fed, hence the bumboat is not so great a treat to him when coming from "blue water."
Fair Italy, the Riviera and Monte Carlo Comprising a Tour Through North and South Italy and Sicily with a Short Account of Malta W. Cope Devereux
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The native "bumboat" is a dugout affair very narrow for its length, and seemingly so cranky that we marvelled at the size of the sail carried.
A Gunner Aboard the "Yankee" Russell Doubleday 1910
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On Tuesday we took a 'bumboat' trip on the Singapore River down to Merlion Park.
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Young Brothers has been providing a shipping lifeline to our islands for more than 100 years, ever since our founders William and Jack Young started a "bumboat" business in 1900.
unknown title 2009
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There will be parades every day of bumboat floats small boats dressed up as everyday objects from the past, including Chinese wooden clogs.
Time Off 2010
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All that remained was to get rid of the importunate bumboat -- men who swarmed round the vessel in their little craft, each looking like a small floating shop.
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There's no wait for a bumboat back, and as we near Changi Village the drizzle stops.
Singapore 2009
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A bumboat decorated with blinking yellow Christmas lights churns across the black water.
justinker Diary Entry justinker 2005
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French: but, egad! it was no more than a bumboat battle, in comparison with some that I have seen.
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There were people gathered onshore as a bumboat approached.
Call to Treason Clancy, Tom, 1947- 2004
MaryW commented on the word bumboat
Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island (1883), ch. 11February 10, 2019