Canoe

//kəˈnuː// noun, verb, slang

noun, verb, slang ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A small long and narrow boat, propelled by one or more people (depending on the size of canoe), using single-bladed paddles. The paddlers face in the direction of travel, in either a seated position, or kneeling on the bottom of the boat. Canoes are open on top, and pointed at both ends.

    "The canoe is of pure black oak, and is in excellent preservation."

  2. 2
    small and light boat; pointed at both ends; propelled with a paddle wordnet
  3. 3
    An oversize, usually older, luxury car. slang
  4. 4
    Any of the deflectors positioned around a roulette wheel, shaped like upside-down boats.
Verb
  1. 1
    To ride or paddle a canoe.

    "Car drivers were helicoptered to safety from nearby roads. There were photographs of people canoeing down streets."

  2. 2
    travel by canoe wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
almadiaarkauxiliarybargeboatbuss

Antonyms

All antonyms
kayak

Example

More examples

"An accomplishment cannot be looked upon as yours unless you have paddled your own canoe."

Etymology

Adopted in 16th century from Spanish canoa, from Taíno *kanowa (“dugout canoe”) (compare Lokono kanoa (“canoe”), Wayuu anuwa, anua (“boat, canoe”)), from Proto-Arawak *kanawa.

Related phrases

Canadian canoecanoe birchcanoe campercanoe campingcanoe packcanoe plantcanoe polocanoe slalomcanoe sprintdouche canoedouche-canoedugout canoe

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