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Definition of "cockboat" [cock•boat]

  • A small rowboat, especially one used to ferry supplies from ship to shore. Also called cockleboat. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Use "cockboat" in a sentence
  • "We have put to sea in a cockboat, but we are quite prepared to rough it."
  • "The Malabar, that huge sea monster, in whose capacious belly so many human creatures lived and suffered, had dwindled to a walnut – shell, and yet beside her bulk how infinitely small had their own frail cockboat appeared as they shot out from under her towering stern!"
  • ""Thaar ain't water enough to float a cockboat; and I'm lookin 'out keerful and feelin' my way afore I plant a fut, you bet.""