dory
/ˈdɔːɹi/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 3.10 in modern English
8
Scrabble Score
4
Letters
2
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A small flat-bottomed boat with pointed or somewhat pointed ends, used for fishing both offshore and on rivers.
noun
Any of several different families of large-eyed, silvery, deep-bodied, laterally compressed, and roughly discoid marine fish.
Example Sentences
- "From every schooner, dories were being dropped into the shining, clear water. The sound of voices and the splashes of oars carried across the sea."
- "He and Gerald usually challenged the rollers in a sponson canoe when Gerald was there for the weekend; or, when Lansing came down, the two took long swims seaward or cruised about in Gerald's dory, clad in their swimming-suits; and Selwyn's youth became renewed in a manner almost ridiculous […]"
- "The dory, and the fisherman who rowed it, are part of the maritime heritage that changed America from a group of shore-bound colonies to a nation with ships that ranged the waters of the world."
- "It is almost impossible for anyone who loves boats not to rejoice at the sight of a St. Pierre dory. Gaily painted, with lots of sheer and a defiantly jaunty look to them, the dories have been pleasing the eyes of their beholders for nearly a century."
- "A dory, by definition, is a flat-bottomed boat with two pointed (or nearly pointed) ends. The traditional dories of the Pacific City fleet were just that. Over the years, however, they have evolved into the square-stern variety seen today."
- "John Wesley Powell […] the one-armed Civil War veteran led nine men in four wooden dories down the untamed and uncharted Colorado River and into the equally untamed and uncharted Grand Canyon."
Etymology
Attested in American English from 1709 C.E.; possibly derived from an indigenous language of the West Indies or Central America, perhaps Miskito.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Usage
Inflected Forms
dories (plural)
more dory (comparative)
most dory (superlative)
dorata (plural)
doru (alternative)
Dorys (plural)