Boatload

//ˈbəʊtˌləʊd// noun, slang

noun, slang ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Cargo or passengers that fill a boat.

    "a boatload of ferry passengers"

  2. 2
    the amount of cargo that can be held by a boat or ship or a freight car wordnet
  3. 3
    A large quantity. slang

    "He showed up an hour later with a whole boatload of hamburgers, chips, cookies, and assorted other munchies, not to mention sodas and beer, and we all fell in and stuffed ourselves silly."

Synonyms

All synonyms
abundancearseloadassloadbellyloadboatfulbrimful

Example

More examples

"A literal boatload of new computers were recalled for inefficient power use."

Etymology

From boat + load. The figurative sense is extended from the literal sense.

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