ˈsteamboat
A boat propelled by steam; esp. a coasting or river steamer of considerable size, carrying either passengers or goods. Also attrib.
| 1787 M. Cutler in Life, etc. (1888) II. 399 In all probability, steamboats will be found to do infinite service in all our extensive river navigation. 1814 Scott Diary 8 Sept. in Lockhart, Embarked in the steam-boat for Glasgow. 1817–8 Cobbett Resid. U.S. (1822) 268 We are now frequently met and passed by large, fine steam-boats, plying up and down the river. 1821 Deb. Congress U.S. 28 Dec. (1855) 44 The jurisdiction had only embraced steamboat navigation. 1847 [see raft-man s.v. raft n.1 6]. 1866 Lowell Study Wind., Swinburne's Trag. (1871) 162 A Mississippi steamboat captain. 1906 Tribune 5 Dec. 6/3 The Thames steamboat service. |
b. fig.
| 1823 Byron Juan ix. lxxiv, I needs must rhyme with dove, That good old steam-boat which keeps verses moving 'Gainst reason. 1854 Mrs. Stowe Sunny Mem. I. xvi. 296 If he [Abp. Whately] had been born in our latitude..the natives would have..said he was a real steamboat on an argument. 1859 Bartlett Dict. Amer. (ed. 2) 449 Steam⁓boat, a term used at the West to denote a dashing, go-a-head character. |
c. Comb., as steamboat Gothic adj. phr. (U.S.), used to designate an ornamented style of architecture typical of houses built by retired steamboat captains in the mid-nineteenth century.
| 1962 W. Faulkner Reivers viii. 166 The big rambling multigalleried multistoried steamboat-gothic hotel where the overalled aficionados..gathered..each February. 1970 K. Platt Pushbutton Butterfly (1971) iv. 43 The beautiful old mansions with their bay windows, ornate Steamboat Gothic cornices and mouldings. |
Hence ˈsteamboating vbl. n. (a) travelling by steamboat; the business of working on or operating a steamboat; (b) fig. (see quots. 1875, 1891); also steamboatman U.S., one who works on a steamboat, esp. a steamboat owner or captain.
| 1826 Malthus Diary 7 July (1966) 263 Dr Brown said that the introduction of Steam boating had quite altered the habits of the people of Glasgow. 1828 Mrs. B. Hall Let. 7 June in Aristocratic Journey (1931) xxii. 288 Two nights more and we shall have done with it and have no more steamboating in this country. 1834 Lady Granville Lett. 9 Sept. (1894) II. 162 Having enjoyed our steamboating on the Rhone so much. 1856 Lever Martins of Cro' M. lxv. 601 That rattling, noisy steam-boating up the Rhine. 1875 Knight Dict. Mech., Steamboating (Bookbinding), cutting simultaneously a pile of books which are as yet uncovered, that is, are out of boards. 1875 ‘Mark Twain’ in Atlantic Monthly Jan. 69/1 When I was a boy, there was but one permanent ambition among my comrades... That was, to be a steamboatman. 1883 Athenæum 2 June 694/3 They treat of a time when steamboating was a great industry [on the Mississippi]. 1891 Century Dict., Steamboating 2. Undue hurrying and slighting of work. (Colloq.) 1910 D. W. Bone Brassbounder 251 Sailormen walk fore and aft; steamboat men, athwart. 1929 G. L. Eskew Pageant of Packets ii. 101 All the steamboatmen when in New Orleans did their banking at the Banque des Citoyens. |