Showboat
noun, verb, slang ·Moderate ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 A river steamboat having a resident theatre. US
"And Agnes Moorehead henpecks with stern persistence as Parthy, the captain's loving wife. The sets, which include a full-sized showboat with belching double stacks and sternwheel, are in the best Metro tradition, which means as sumptuous as sumptuous can be."
- 2 a river steamboat on which theatrical performances could be given (especially on the Mississippi River) wordnet
- 3 A showoff. US, broadly, informal
"Well, I was a little upset at first. I mean, obviously people are going to think I'm a showboat, and a little bit of a prick."
- 1 To show off. US, ambitransitive, informal
"Out: Trash talk, dirty play, crybabying, showboating and players who can't be bothered to show up for games or keep their shoes on."
Example
More examples"And Agnes Moorehead henpecks with stern persistence as Parthy, the captain's loving wife. The sets, which include a full-sized showboat with belching double stacks and sternwheel, are in the best Metro tradition, which means as sumptuous as sumptuous can be."
Etymology
From show + boat.
Related phrases
More for "showboat"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.