Definitions

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

  • noun A boat used for work rather than for recreation, transportation, or military purposes.

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

  • noun A boat used for purposes other than recreation, passenger transport, or combat.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

work +‎ boat

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Examples

  • April 20-21: The Damon Bankston, a 285-foot workboat that was ferrying equipment to the Deepwater Horizon, reports it had picked up 110 crew members, three of them critically injured.

    Coast Guard Log Details Early Hours of Spill 2010

  • My windows were open and in my sleep I heard the wind in the trees, a solitary pecan husk rattle on the tin roof, a workboat chugging heavily on the bayou.

    Dave Robicheaux Ebook Boxed Set James Lee Burke 2002

  • My windows were open and in my sleep I heard the wind in the trees, a solitary pecan husk rattle on the tin roof, a workboat chugging heavily on the bayou.

    Dave Robicheaux Ebook Boxed Set James Lee Burke 2002

  • The workboat was proceeding south, her wake rippling out toward them in parallel lines on the mirrored surface.

    Red Storm Rising Clancy, Tom, 1947- 1986

  • There was a big gasoline workboat, gray with a yellow funnel, that she knew was Monohan's.

    Big Timber A Story of the Northwest Bertrand W. Sinclair 1926

  • The crew of the patrol boat then assisted the crew of a small workboat to recover a member of the Woolwich ferry crew who had fallen into the water.

    Evening Standard - Home Mark Blunden 2011

  • This is a very functional yacht with workboat roots and a style not out of place in Monte Carlo.

    Forbes.com: News gCaptain 2011

  • The latest in a line of workboats designed by Damen Shipyards, her unique shape is based off the Fast Crew Supplier , a workboat developed to service oil rigs in the rough waters of the North Sea.

    Forbes.com: News gCaptain 2011

  • Divers are attaching lines to a sunken workboat off Seattle as they prepare to raise it with the help of a 150-ton crane barge.

    The Seattle Times 2011

  • Waterfront Construction office manager Diede Janel says the 73-foot vessel that sank Friday morning is an old World War II landing craft that was being used as a workboat in Puget Sound near the city's West Seattle neighborhood.

    Yahoo! News: Business - Opinion 2011

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