toni India.
(ˈtəʊnɪ)
Also tonee, tony.
[a. Tamil: see dhoney, doney.]
† a. A small South Indian sailing vessel. b. A dug-out boat. c. A ferry boat.
| 1582 N. Lichefield tr. Castanheda's Conq. E. Ind. i. xxiv. 60 There came towarde him to y⊇ number of lx. Tonys full of Souldiers. 1704 Collect. Voy. (Churchill) III. 734/2 Four Fishermen were coming to us in a Tony or Fisher-boat. 1881 Naval Encycl. 811/2 Tonee, a canoe formerly used on the coast of Malabar. 1914 Yachting Monthly June 83/2 Inshore the flood tide had already turned the tony and bunder boats, the former a canoe-like craft hollowed straight out from the tree. 1917 Ibid. Sept. 268/2 The large Tonis are between 25 and 30 feet long. 1946 Mariner's Mirror XXXII. 209 The ordinary Malabar dug⁓out, called toni in Bombay. 1978 Times of India 15 Jan. 3/5 Contraband radios and cassettes..were seized from a toni, Laxmi, on Thursday at the Ferry Wharf. |