Definition of "fireboat" [fireboat]

• A boat equipped to fight fires along waterfronts and on ships. (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.

• "I had been working as assistant engineer aboard fireboat John J. Harvey for only six months when the former FDNY vessel was called back into service to pump water alongside active-duty Marine Division boats."
• "New York City fireboat John D. McKean was among the first to arrive at the seawall just south of North Cove where the World Financial Center meets the Hudson River."
• "At 28 years old, I had stumbled, by blissful accident, aboard a retired 1931 New York City fireboat, now operating as a living museum, and begun a hands-on, engine-room apprenticeship of the sort so few still exist in this country."