noun, verb ·2 syllables ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   The (often clandestine) transportation of a large number of people or amount of goods by boat, especially an exodus of people.
2. 2
   Alternative form of boat lift (“mechanism used for raising and lowering boats on a canal vertically from one water level to another”). alt-of, alternative

Verb

1. 1
   To transport (a large exodus of people, etc.) by boat. transitive

Etymology

From boat + lift.

Related phrases

boat lift

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.