flat·boat

(flăt′bōt′)

A boat with a flat bottom and square ends used for transporting freight on inland waterways.

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.

flatboat

(ˈflætˌbəʊt)

(Nautical Terms) any boat with a flat bottom, usually for transporting goods on a canal or river

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

flat•boat

(ˈflætˌboʊt)

n.

a large flat-bottomed boat for use in shallow water, esp. on rivers.

[1650–60]

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun

flatboat - a flatbottom boat for carrying heavy loads (especially on canals)

barge, hoy, lighter

boat - a small vessel for travel on water

dredger - a barge (or a vessel resembling a barge) that is used for dredging

houseboat - a barge that is designed and equipped for use as a dwelling

pontoon - (nautical) a floating structure (as a flat-bottomed boat) that serves as a dock or to support a bridge

scow - a barge carrying bulk materials in an open hold

Norfolk wherry, wherry - sailing barge used especially in East Anglia

Translations

barge

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

Huck was sitting on the gunwale of a flatboat, list- lessly dangling his feet in the water and looking very melancholy.

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They reached Skaguay in a snowstorm, went in dog-sledges over the Chilkoot Pass, and shot the Yukon in flatboats. They reached Circle City on the very day when some Siwash Indians came into the settlement with the report that there had been a rich gold strike farther up the river, on a certain Klondike Creek.

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Bitan Police Department Deputy Director Chao Ho-hsiang told CNA that Shen and his wife quickly apologized to the owner and said he was confident in his abilities to pilot the kayak because he frequently rowed a flatboat in his native Zhejiang Province in China to harvest water chestnuts.

Chinese student, wife owe NT$100,000 after rescue from stolen kayak

He carried his possessions in a hand-built flatboat and found a suitable homesite on a natural levee along Lake Washington.

The Delta's magic days and nights: Esperanza Outdoors offers premier duck hunting in an intimate, family-style setting

In the east Kootenays of southeastern British Columbia, he fell in with a man from Edmonton by the name of 'Flatboat' Mclean.

Gold mining at Edmonton

The painting's symmetry is striking, a point noted in a review of Bingham's river paintings from the New York Times: the rectangular flatboat floats downstream, framed by a peaceful river, misty tree-lined riverbanks, and a pale blue, cloudless sky.

Flatboats, travelers, infectious diseases, and other river thoughts

Traveling by flatboat on the Mississippi River, he brought with him a cargo of tobacco and furs ostensibly to sell when he arrived.

The Unknown Travels and Dubious Pursuits of William Clark

Each flatboat of Whitford & Harris, a prominent firm engaged in the trade, carried ten to twenty tons; a decade later, such boats carried up to thirty tons.

Pioneers on the forest fringe: the wood economy of the Red River settlement in western Canada, 1812-1883

They loaded their wagon on a flatboat to the mouth of the Sandy River (near present day Portland), waited two days while their cattle came by trail, took a ferryboat across the Willamette River, a steamship to Rainier in the new State of Washington, a skiff to the mouth of the Cowlitz River and then hired a canoe to take them up the Cowlitz.

Negotiating the waters: canoe and steamship mobility in the Pacific Northwest

(1) Mort Kunstler, having received a commission, has since painted a new version of this scene, one faithful to historical facts, depicting Washington on a flatboat with many soldiers and animals and no flag.

'Bogus history' and Robert Greene's Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay

According to CBS News, at the age of 22, Lincoln had been a crewman on a flatboat that got stuck on a dam at New Salem, Ill.

Abraham Lincoln only US president ever to receive patent