Whaleboat
noun
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 A long narrow rowing boat, formerly used in whaling, which is pointed at both ends so that it can move either forwards or backwards equally well.
"Before we had gone fifty yards we perceived that all hopes of getting further up the stream in the whale-boat were at an end, for not two hundred yards above where we had stopped were a succession of shallows and mudbanks, with not six inches of water over them."
- 2 a long narrow boat designed for quick turning and use in rough seas wordnet
- 3 A boat resembling this and carried on a warship or other ship.
Synonyms
All synonymsExample
More examples"Before we had gone fifty yards we perceived that all hopes of getting further up the stream in the whale-boat were at an end, for not two hundred yards above where we had stopped were a succession of shallows and mudbanks, with not six inches of water over them."
Etymology
From whale + boat.
Related phrases
More for "whaleboat"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.