Definitions

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

  • noun The longest boat carried by a sailing ship, especially by a merchant ship.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The largest and strongest boat belonging to a sailing ship. It corresponds to the launch of a modern man-of-war.

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

  • noun (Naut.) Formerly, the largest boat carried by a merchant vessel, corresponding to the launch of a naval vessel.

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

  • noun nautical Among the boats carried by a ship the largest, thus the most capable of boats carried on a ship.

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

  • noun the largest boat carried by a merchant sailing vessel

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

long +‎ boat

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Examples

  • In 1904, the mound in southeastern Norway's Vestfold County surrendered one of the country's greatest archaeological treasures, the Oseberg Viking longboat, which is now on display at the Viking Ship Museum in Oslo.

    Archive 2007-09-01 2007

  • In 1904, the mound in southeastern Norway's Vestfold County surrendered one of the country's greatest archaeological treasures, the Oseberg Viking longboat, which is now on display at the Viking Ship Museum in Oslo.

    Archaeologists dig up Viking queen to solve death riddle 2007

  • It being the last Tuesday in January, it is Up Helly Aa day in Lerwick when the town celebrates its Viking heritage by parading round the streets behind a replica Viking longboat, which is then burned just as our Norse forbearers did when sending a departed soul to Valhalla.

    Epolitix News 2010

  • The longboat was a very fine, roomy, and wholesome-looking boat, big enough to accommodate all that were left of us, as well as our kits and a very fair stock of provisions; but in order to afford a little more room and comfort for the wounded men I decided to take the gig also, putting into her a sufficient quantity of provisions and water to ballast her, and placing Simpson in charge of her, with one of the unwounded and two of the most slightly-wounded men as companions, leaving six of us to man the longboat.

    A Middy in Command A Tale of the Slave Squadron Harry Collingwood 1886

  • What they’d seen on the longboat was a warning, Mitchell said.

    A Furnace Afloat JOE JACKSON 2003

  • Then you have to take another boat, a "longboat" over to the sanctuary, and this is where things went bad.

    TravelPod.com Recent Updates 2008

  • Scotch highballs, smoking fragrant three-for-a-dollar Havanas that were charged to the adventure, and for ever maundering about the hell of the longboat, the cross-bearings unnamable, and the treasure a fathom under the sand.

    CHAPTER XII 2010

  • I knew that if we escaped at all, it would be by the longboat.

    Chapter 19 2010

  • I was not minded to embark with a broken member on so hazardous a voyage in the longboat.

    Chapter 19 2010

  • Didn't he fetch the atoll after eighteen days in the longboat?

    CHAPTER XII 2010

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  • "The longboat, the largest boat that usually accompanies a ship, is generally furnished with a mast and sails, and may be armed and equipped, for cruising short distances against merchant-ships of the enemy, or smugglers, or for impressing seamen, &c. her principal employ, however, is to bring heavy stores or provisions on board, and also to go up small rivers to fetch water, wood, &c."

    Falconer's New Universal Dictionary of the Marine (1816), 47

    October 11, 2008