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Pontoon

//pɒnˈtuːn// noun

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A flat-bottomed boat or other floating structure used as a buoyant support for a temporary bridge, dock or landing stage.

    "Thanks to the previous experience of the chief performers, to careful preparation and rehearsal, and to perfect weather conditions, they watched in breath-bated silence the spectacle of the huge bulk moving without a hitch into position over the temporary pier caps on which it settled as water ballast was admitted to the pontoons."

  2. 2
    A card game in which the object is to obtain cards whose value adds up to, or nearly to, 21 but not exceed it. uncountable
  3. 3
    a float supporting a seaplane wordnet
  4. 4
    A bridge with floating supports. broadly
  5. 5
    (nautical) a floating structure (as a flat-bottomed boat) that serves as a dock or to support a bridge wordnet
Show 3 more definitions
  1. 6
    A box used to raise a sunken vessel.
  2. 7
    A float of a seaplane.
  3. 8
    A lighter or barge used for loading or unloading ships.

Etymology

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Middle French ponton, from Old French ponton, from Latin pontō, pontōnem (“ferryboat”), from pōns (“bridge”).

Etymology 2

Probably from vingt-un, an obsolete variant of vingt-et-un (“twenty-one”), from French.

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