Emily Dickinson Lexicon

BOAT, n. [Sax. bat; Sw. bat; Dan. baad; W. bâd; Ir. bad; D. boot; G. bot, a boat; It. dim. battello, a little boat, whence Fr. bateau; Sp. bote, a boat.]

1. A small open vessel, or water craft, usually moved by oars, or rowing. The forms, dimensions and uses of boats are very various, and some of them carry a light sail. The different kinds of boats have different names; as, long-boat, lanch, barge, pinnace, jolly-boat, cutter, yawl, ferry-boat, wherry, Moses-boat, punt, felucca, fishing-boat, perogue, &c.
2. A small vessel carrying a mast and sails; but usually described by another word, as a packet-boat, passage-boat, advice-boat, &c. – Johnson.

BOAT, v.t.

To transport in a boat; as, to boat goods across a lake. – Rep. on Canals. Ash.

BOAT'A-BLE, a.

Navigable for boats, or small river craft. – Ramsay.

BOAT'-BILL, n. [boat and bill.]

A genus of birds, the Cancroma, of two species, the crested and the brown; but by some ornithologists, they are considered as varieties of the same species. They are of the Grallic order, with a bill four inches long, not unlike a boat with the keel uppermost, or like the bowls of two spoons, with the hollow parts placed together. – Encyc.

BOAT'ED,

pp Transported in a boat.

BOAT'-FLY, or BOAT'-IN-SECT, n.

A genus of insects, Hemipters, known in zoology by the generic term Notonecta. – Encyc.

BOAT'-HOOK, n. [boat and hook.]

An iron hook with a point on the back, fixed to a long pole, to pull or push a boat. – Mar. Dict.

BOAT'ING, n.

1. The act or practice of transporting in boats.
2. In Persia, a punishment of capital offenders by laying them on the back in a boat which is covered, where they perish. – Encyc.

BOAT'ING, ppr.

Transporting in boats.

BO-A'TION, n. [L. boo.]

A crying out; a roar. [Not used.] – Derham.

BOAT'-MAN, or BOATS'-MAN, n. [boat and man.]

A man who manages a boat; a rower of a boat. – Dryden. Prior.

BOAT'-ROPE, n. [boat and rope.]

A rope to fasten a boat, usually called a painter.

BOAT'-SHAP-ED, a.

Having the shape of a boat; navicular; cymbiform; hollow like a boat; as the valve of some pericarps. – Martyn.

BOAT'SWAIN, n. [In seamen's language, bōsn; Sax. batswein, from bat, boat, and swein, swain, a boy or servant.]

An officer on board of ships, who has charge of the boats, sails, rigging, colors, anchors, cables and cordage. His office is also, to summon the crew to their duty, to relieve the watch, assist in the necessary business of the ship, seize and punish offenders, &c. He has a mate who has charge of the long-boat, for setting forth and weighing anchors, warping, towing, and mooring. – Mar. Dict. Encyc. Johnson.

BOB, n.

1. Any little round thing, that plays loosely at the end of a string, cord, or movable machine; a little ornament or pendant that hangs so as to play loosely. – Dryden. Our common people apply the word to a knot of worms, on a string, used in fishing for eels.
2. The words repeated at the end of a stanza. – L'Estrange.
3. A blow; a shake or jog; a jeer or flout. – Ainsworth. Ascham.
4. The ball of a short pendulum. – Encyc.
5. A mode of ringing. – Johnson.
6. A bob-wig. – Shenstone.

BOB, v.i.

1. To play backward and forward; to play loosely against any thing. – Dryden.
2. To angle, or fish for eels, or to catch eels with a bob. – Encyc.

BOB, v.t.

1. To beat; to shake or jog. – Shak.
2. To cheat; to gain by fraud. – Shak.
3. To mock or delude. – Ainsworth.
4. To cut short.

BO-BANCE', n. [bobans'.]

A boasting. [Not in use.] – Chaucer.

BOB'BED, pp.

Beat or shaken; cheated; gained by fraud; deluded.

BOB'BIN, n. [Fr. bobine; D. babyn.]

A small pin or cylindrical piece of wood, with a head, on which thread is wound for making lace. A similar instrument, bored through to receive an iron pivot, and with a border at each end, is used in spinning, to wind thread or silk on; a spool.

BOB'BING, ppr.

Playing back and forth; striking; cheating; angling for eels.

BOB'BIN-WORK, n. [bobbin and work.]

Work woven with bobbins. – Grew.

BOB'-CHER-RY, n. [bob and cherry.]

Among children, a play in which a cherry is hung so as to bob against the mouth. – Johnson.

BOB'E-RO, n. [Span.]

A kind of dance, or play.

BO'BO, n.

A Mexican fish, two feet long, in high esteem for food. – Clavigero.