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Definition of "tramp steamer" []

  • Nautical A commercial vessel that has no regular schedule but takes on and discharges cargo whenever hired to do so. (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 "tramp steamer" in a sentence
  • "There was nothing marked on the paper but I could trace the route a little tramp steamer would take, through the Bosphorus, through the Aegean Sea, through the Mediterranean, out past Gibraltar, and then full steam across the Atlantic to Portland, Maine."
  • "She was the Danish tramp steamer N.J. Fjord, blowing off steam from her boilers and rising and falling in the gentle roll of the sea."
  • "In 1994, a tramp steamer named Golden Venture ran aground in the middle of the night in Queens, bearing nearly three hundred illegal immigrants smuggled mostly from Fujian."
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