bil·an·der

(bĭl′ən-dər, bī′lən-)

Nautical A small two-masted sailing vessel of the 1600s and 1700s, used especially on canals in the Low Countries.

[Dutch billander, probably from binlander, inlander, from binnenlander : binnen, within (from Middle Dutch; see en in Indo-European roots) + land, land; see lendh- in Indo-European roots.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

bilander

(ˈbɪləndə)

(Nautical Terms) a small two-masted cargo ship

[C17: from Dutch, literally: by-lander, because used on canals]

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

Mentioned in

Bylander

References in periodicals archive

Using the first-person plural to include his Anglican audience, Dryden, always the master of the heroic couplet, now stretches into a triplet his comparison of Protestants to fearful sailors like those manning small merchant ships, called bilanders: Why choose we then like bilanders to creep Along the coast and land in view to keep, When safely we may launch into the deep?

The cost of John Dryden's Catholicism

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