Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A small rowboat, especially one used to ferry supplies from ship to shore.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A small boat. See
cock .
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun A small boat, esp. one used on rivers or near the shore.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun nautical A small
rowing boat , especially one pulled behind a larger ship, or used toferry goods between aship and theshore .
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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We have put to sea in a cockboat, but we are quite prepared to rough it.
David Copperfield 2007
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The Malabar, that huge sea monster, in whose capacious belly so many human creatures lived and suffered, had dwindled to a walnut – shell, and yet beside her bulk how infinitely small had their own frail cockboat appeared as they shot out from under her towering stern!
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This done with expedition, like men skilful in such mischief, as they took their cockboat to go aboard their own ship, it was overwhelmed in the sea, and certain of these men there drowned; the rest were preserved even by those silly souls whom they had before spoiled, who saved and delivered them aboard the _Swallow_.
Sir Humphrey Gilbert's Voyage to Newfoundland Edward Hayes
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On these the adventurous mariner can sail his little cockboat, discreetly retiring before he becomes involved and engulfed in the main stream.
Sea-Wolves of the Mediterranean E. Hamilton Currey
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When we had rowed about half-way with our boats it began to blow very stiffly, and the sea ran so high that the cockboat of the
A Source Book of Australian History Gwendolen H. [Compiler] Swinburne
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"Thaar ain't water enough to float a cockboat; and I'm lookin 'out keerful and feelin' my way afore I plant a fut, you bet."
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Jacobz in command of our pinnace manned with 4 musketeers and 6 rowers, all of them furnished with pikes and side arms together with the cockboat of the _Zeehaen_, with one of her second mates and six musketeers in it, to a bay situated N.W. of us at upwards of a mile's distance in order to ascertain what facilities (as regards fresh water, refreshments, timber and the like) may be available there.
A Source Book of Australian History Gwendolen H. [Compiler] Swinburne
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We have put to sea in a cockboat, but we are quite prepared to rough it.
David Copperfield Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870 1917
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Conmee on Christass, lame crutch and leg sailor in cockboat armfolded ropepulling hitching stamp hornpipe through and through.
Ulysses James Joyce 1911
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This done with expedition, like men skilful in such mischief, as they took their cockboat to go aboard their own ship, it was overwhelmed in the sea, and certain of these men there drowned; the rest were preserved even by those silly souls whom they had before spoiled, who saved and delivered them aboard the Swallow.
Sir Humphrey Gilberts Voyage to Newfoundland. Paras. 1-49 1909
hernesheir commented on the word cockboat
A boat, but not a banana boat.
January 3, 2012