dinghy
(ˈdɪŋgɪ)
Also 9 dingy, dingee, dinghee, dingey.
[a. Hindī ḍēṅgī or ḍīṅgī small boat, wherry-boat, dim. of ḍēṅgā, ḍōṅgā, a larger boat, sloop, coasting vessel. The spelling with h in Eng. is to indicate the hard g.]
1. Originally, a native rowing-boat in use upon Indian rivers; of various sizes and shapes, resembling sometimes a canoe, sometimes a wherry. In the West of India applied to a small sailing-boat used on the coast.
| [1794 Rigging & Seamanship I. 242 Dingas are vessels used at Bombay..and are navigated sometimes by rowing with paddles. They have one mast..which rakes much forward. On the mast is hoisted a sail..resembling a settee-sail.] 1810 T. Williamson E. Ind. Vade Mecum II. 159 (Y.) On these larger pieces of water there are usually canoes, or dingies. 1832 Mundy Pen & Pencil Sk. Ind. II. 148 A little dinghee, or Ganges wherry. 1835 A. Burnes Trav. Bokhara (ed. 2) I. 15 We were met by several ‘dingies’ full of armed men. 1845 Stocqueler Handbk. Brit. India (1854) 185 Wherries, or dinghees, manned by two rowers and a steersman, are to be found in numbers at all the wharfs. 1851 Great Exhib. Offic. Cat. II. 909 The Dingee or Bum-boat of Bombay, is a small boat, from 12 to 20 feet in length..with a raking mast, and a yard the same length as the boat. Ibid. 910 Cutch Dingee. These vessels are from 30 to 50 feet in length..some of them are decked wholly, others only abaft the mizen mast, and a small part forward. 1879 F. T. Pollok Sport Brit. Burmah I. 19 We set out on our hopeless task in a small dinghy. |
2. Hence extended to small rowing-boats (and, subsequently, small motor-driven boats) used elsewhere: spec. a. ‘a small extra boat in men-of-war and merchant ships’ (Smyth Sailor's Word-bk.); also, the boat or ‘tender’ of a yacht, steam-launch, or similar craft; b. a small pleasure rowing-boat; usually on the Thames, a small light skiff, clinker-built, for one, sometimes two, pair of sculls, and with or without outriggers.
| 1818 ‘A. Burton’ Adv. J. Newcome iii. 176 The coofs hae stown awa the dingey. 1836 Marryat Midsh. Easy xi, Jump up here and lower down the dingey. 1845 Darwin Voy. Nat. viii. (1879) 169 Mr. Chaffers took the dingey and went up two or three miles further. 1873 Daily News 16 Aug., Credit must..be given to the scullers for even venturing out in their little dingies in such rough water. 1882 Nares Seamanship (ed. 6) 147 A dingy is..useful for landing the men. 1884 Illustr. Lond. News 20 Sept. 268/3 They had but just time to get into the dinghy, a boat 13 ft. long and 4 ft. wide..in which they drifted nearly a thousand miles across the Atlantic. 1885 Act 48–9 Vict. c. 76 §29 The term ‘vessel’ shall include any..boat, randan, wherry, skiff, dingey, shallop, punt, canoe, raft, or other craft. 1932 T. E. Lawrence Lett. (1938) 757 Our two Squadrons both sent us their dinghies, asking us to check the timing and tune them. 1935 Ibid. 855 We launched the Dinghy: the quietest and sweetest tick-over of any Dinghy yet! 1957 Encycl. Brit. XV. 878/2 (heading) The Motor Dinghy. This is an open boat..driven by an engine installed inside..or, more usually, by an outboard motor. |
c. An inflatable rubber boat, esp. one carried on an aircraft for use in an emergency. In full, rubber dinghy.
| 1939 War Illustr. 14 Oct. 156/2 We alighted and, after signalling the men in the boat, blew up our rubber dinghy and pushed it out with a line to each end. 1942 Jrnl. R. Aeronaut. Soc. XLVI. 3 When folded the dinghy forms a cushion..which is strapped to the seat-type parachute. 1958 Daily Mail 15 Aug. 2/7 He radioed: ‘Can see wreckage of an aircraft. Two tyres floating in sea. Several inflated dinghies on surface.’ |
3. Comb. dinghy-man.
| 1878 D. Kemp Yacht & Boat Sailing (1880) 518 Dinghy-man. The man who has charge of the dinghy of a yacht, whose duty it is to go ashore on errands. |