Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

catboat

Word Rarity Very rare

Frequency: 1.04 in modern English

Syllables: cat-boat
IPA

11

Scrabble Score

7

Letters

2

Syllables

5

Unique Chars

Meaning

noun

A sailing boat with a single sail, usually rigged on a gaff spar, used for fishing in New England and later adapted for racing and cruising. It has a single mast set near to the bow and a long boom which may extend over the stern.

Example Sentences

"Men that I knew around Wapatomac didn't wear high, shiny plug hats, nor yeller spring overcoats, nor carry canes with ivory heads as big as a catboat's anchor, as you might say."

Etymology

According to Watkins, the first element is related to the animal cat and has correlations in Dutch kat (“vessel with wide fore and aft”), Medieval Latin gatus, gattus, Old French chat, a war machine or portable shed for protecting sapping operations, or a boat with such a shed, and Middle French chat (“kind of commercial vessel”). However, it could instead derive from Irish cot, coit; see cot (sense 3).

Origin

Source language: Irish

Word Breakdown

Root: cot

Inflected Forms

catboats (plural)

Derived Forms

catboater

Synonyms

Una boat

Questions

What does catboat mean?: A sailing boat with a single sail, usually rigged on a gaff spar, used for fishing in New England and later adapted for racing and cruising. It has a single mast set near to the bow and a long boom which may extend over the stern.
Where does catboat come from?: It is traced to Irish.

How to pronounce catboat

Open the pronunciation page — Open the Speakur entry for “catboat”.
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