Flyboat

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A large flat-bottomed Dutch coasting vessel.

    "August 14, 1595, Thomas Treffry, letter to Sir Robert Cecil a ship of Bristol was chased into this harbour by two Spanish fly-boats, and they report […] that there are five men of war, Spanish, in the road of Conquet"

  2. 2
    A kind of passenger boat formerly used on canals.

Example

More examples

"August 14, 1595, Thomas Treffry, letter to Sir Robert Cecil a ship of Bristol was chased into this harbour by two Spanish fly-boats, and they report […] that there are five men of war, Spanish, in the road of Conquet"

Etymology

Borrowed from Dutch vlieboot, but re-analysed as fly + boat.

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