Definitions

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

  • noun A large flatbottom boat with square ends, used chiefly for transporting freight.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A kind of large flat-bottomed boat used chiefly as a lighter; a pram.
  • noun A small boat made of willows, etc., and covered with skins; a ferry-boat.
  • To transport in a scow.

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

  • transitive verb To transport in a scow.
  • noun (Naut.) A large flat-bottomed boat, having broad, square ends.

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

  • noun A large flat-bottomed boat, having broad, square ends.
  • verb To transport in a scow.

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

  • noun any of various flat-bottomed boats with sloping ends
  • noun a barge carrying bulk materials in an open hold

Etymologies

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

[Dutch schouw, from Middle Dutch scouwe.]

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Examples

  • By the time I was sixteen I was sailing in scow-schooners, fishing salmon with the Greeks up the Sacramento River, and serving as sailor on the Fish Patrol.

    SMALL-BOAT SAILING 2010

  • By the time I was sixteen I was sailing in scow-schooners, fishing salmon with the Greeks up the Sacramento River, and serving as sailor on the Fish Patrol.

    Small-Boat Sailing 1917

  • By the time I was sixteen I was sailing in scow-schooners, fishing salmon with the Greeks up the Sacramento River, and serving as sailor on the Fish Patrol.

    Small Boat Sailing With Jack London 1912

  • I was sailing in scow-schooners, fishing salmon with the Greeks up the

    The Joy Of Small-Boat Sailing 1912

  • By the time I was sixteen I was sailing in scow-schooners, fishing salmon with the Greeks up the Sacramento River, and serving as sailor on the Fish Patrol.

    Small-Boat Sailing:Jack London Ranch Album 1912

  • He shared his garbage tour with M'Buna, and they spent their time chatting desultorily at the controls of the "scow" -actually a reactionless space tractor-while the garbage pods steered, unloaded, and returned themselves.

    Starchild Omnibus Pohl, Frederik & Williamson, Jack 1963

  • Shooting rapids in a scow is a very different matter from riding through them on a plank.

    The Scientific American Boy The Camp at Willow Clump Island A. Russell Bond

  • Sometimes it is called a scow; but that sounds common.

    Little Rivers; a book of essays in profitable idleness Henry Van Dyke 1892

  • As the sides of the scow were a little higher than usual, and the interior of the cabin had no more elevation than was necessary for comfort, this unusual addition had neither a very clumsy nor a very obtrusive appearance.

    The Deerslayer James Fenimore Cooper 1820

  • At the "scow," as the ferry-boat was called, Peter joined us; he ferried us deftly over the deep and rapid water, and then led on, as rapidly as if it had been daylight, along a path through the pines.

    In the Wrong Paradise Andrew Lang 1878

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