ˈflat-boat
(Also as two words.)
1. A broad flat-bottomed boat, used for transport, esp. in shallow waters.
| 1660 F. Brooke tr. Le Blanc's Trav. 209 Almost every inhabitant hath his Almady or flat boat, wherein they recreate upon the Lake. 1711 Lond. Gaz. No. 4919/2 They have a great number of flat Boats with them. 1801 Nelson in Nicolas Disp. 21 July IV. 427 A Flotilla..to consist of Gun-boats and Flat-boats. 1806 Naval Chron. XV. 90 He commanded a division of flat boats. |
b. U.S. A large roughly-made boat formerly much used for floating goods, etc. down the Mississippi and other western rivers.
| 1837 H. Martineau Soc. Amer. II. 199 Notwithstanding the increase of steam-boats in the Mississippi, flat boats are still much in use. 1883 C. F. Woolson For the Major iv, African slaves poling their flat-boats along the Southern rivers. |
2. attrib. and Comb., as flatboat-man, ‘a hand employed on a flat-boat’ (Bartlett).
| 1837 H. Martineau Soc. Amer. II. 200, I felt a strong inclination for a flat-boat voyage down the vast and beautiful Mississippi. 1864 Lowell McClellan's Rep. Prose Wks. 1890 V. 116 A country where a flatboatman may rise to the top, by virtue of mere manhood. |
Hence flat-boat v. trans., to transport in a flat-boat (U.S. colloq.).
| 1858 Nat. Intelligencer 29 July (Bartlett) Fruit, which he flat-boated from Wheeling to that point. |