Definition of "catamaran" [cat•a•ma•ran]

• A boat with two parallel hulls or floats, especially a light sailboat with a mast mounted on a transverse frame joining the hulls. (noun)
• A raft of logs or floats lashed together and propelled by paddles or sails. (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.

• "That word, ironically, is the origin for the English word catamaran, now applied to sleek, luxury yachts."
• "A clumsy affair called a catamaran, the acephalous ancestor of the torpedo, was expected to relieve the sea of some thousands of people who had no business there."
• "The man was blowed to pieces, I tell you, by a thing called a catamaran, off the coast o '"