boat

name

1. Acronym of brightest of all time (“the brightest gamma-ray burst ever recorded in the universe”).

noun

Etymology: From Middle English bot, boot, boet, boyt (“boat”), from Old English bāt (“boat”), from Proto-West Germanic *bait, from Proto-Germanic *baitaz, *baitą (“boat, small ship”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeyd- (“to break, split”) (whence also fissure via Latin). Cognate with Old Norse beit (“boat”), Middle Dutch beitel (“little boat”). Old Norse bátr (whence Faroese and Icelandic bátur, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish båt, Danish båd), Dutch boot, German Boot, Occitan batèl and French bateau are all ultimately borrowings from the Old English word. Compare typologically ship << Proto-Indo-European *skey-; Russian долблёнка (dolbljónka) (< долби́ть (dolbítʹ)), Russian чёлн (čoln) (akin to коло́ть (kolótʹ)).

1. A craft used for transportation of goods, fishing, racing, recreational cruising, or military use on or in the water, propelled by oars or outboard motor or inboard motor or by wind.

   “We can't get everything in the boat. We'll leave this stuff behind.”

   “Carried somehow, somewhither, for some reason, on these surging floods, were these travelers,[…]. Even such a boat as the Mount Vernon offered a total deck space so cramped as to leave secrecy or privacy well out of the question, even had the motley and democratic assemblage of passengers been disposed to accord either.”

2. A full house.
3. A conveyance, utensil, or dish somewhat resembling a boat in shape.

   “a stone boat;   a gravy boat”

4. A large and heavy car; the term connotes wasteful size.

   “Near-synonyms: land yacht, sled”

   “He claimed to be broke but he always drove that ridiculous boat.”

5. One of two possible conformations of cyclohexane rings (the other being chair), shaped roughly like a boat.
6. The refugee boats arriving in Australian waters, and by extension, refugees generally.
7. In Conway’s Game of Life, a particular still life consisting of a dead cell surrounded by five living cells.

   “It creates 4 blocks, a boat, and a glider every 768 generations.”

   “The program is represented as a string of boats (1s) and blocks (0s).”

8. Alternative form of BOAT.

verb

Etymology: From Middle English bot, boot, boet, boyt (“boat”), from Old English bāt (“boat”), from Proto-West Germanic *bait, from Proto-Germanic *baitaz, *baitą (“boat, small ship”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeyd- (“to break, split”) (whence also fissure via Latin). Cognate with Old Norse beit (“boat”), Middle Dutch beitel (“little boat”). Old Norse bátr (whence Faroese and Icelandic bátur, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish båt, Danish båd), Dutch boot, German Boot, Occitan batèl and French bateau are all ultimately borrowings from the Old English word. Compare typologically ship << Proto-Indo-European *skey-; Russian долблёнка (dolbljónka) (< долби́ть (dolbítʹ)), Russian чёлн (čoln) (akin to коло́ть (kolótʹ)).

1. To travel by boat.
2. To transport in a boat.

   “to boat goods”

3. To transport (deport to a penal colony).

   “Troy was 'boated' for seven years after being found guilty of burglary and robbery.”

4. To place in a boat.

   “to boat oars”