swiftboat
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 0.00 in modern English
17
Scrabble Score
9
Letters
2
Syllables
8
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
verb
To smear; to attack someone or something's reputation using slander, misrepresentation, or false accusations.
Example Sentences
- "The men narrowly missed death when the swiftboat in front of theirs took a direct hit from a Communist rocket-propelled grenade."
- "Kilgore represents one of Willard's guides into the heart of darkness. The swiftboat captain represents another."
- "We felt like Athenian sailors waiting for Persian triremes to blunder into the straits of Messina, but we were probably more like Vietcong irregulars waiting to ambush American swiftboat captains."
- "When I was serving on a swiftboat in Vietnam, my crewmates and I had a dog we called VC. We all took care of him, and he stayed with us and loved riding on the swiftboat deck."
- "Lately, however, Republican swiftboat attacks have begun to fall short."
- "So I saw this swiftboat TV attack on Jefferson."
Etymology
Uncertain: Possibly, swift + boat, or possibly based on an acronym for Shallow Water Inshore Fast Tactical Craft. The use as a political term derives from a smear campaign against John Kerry when Texas tycoon Robert J. Perry hired several Navy swiftboat veterans to form the group Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, which questioned the legitimacy of Kerry's status as a war hero.
Usage
- American usage
- Derogatory
- Transitive verb