different between boat vs tow

English

Etymology

From Middle English bot, boot, boet, boyt (“boat”), from Old English b?t (“boat”), from Proto-Germanic *baitaz, *bait? (“boat, small ship”), from Proto-Indo-European *b?eyd- (“to break, split”). Cognate with Old Norse beit (“boat”), Middle Dutch beitel (“little boat”).

Old Norse bátr (whence Icelandic bátur, Norwegian båt, Danish båd), Dutch boot, German Boot, Occitan batèl and French bateau are all ultimately borrowings from the Old English word.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: b?t, IPA^(key): /b??t/
• Rhymes: -??t
• (General American) enPR: b?t, IPA^(key): /bo?t/

Noun

boat (plural boats)

1. A craft used for transportation of goods, fishing, racing, recreational cruising, or military use on or in the water, propelled by oars or outboard motor or inboard motor or by wind.

   • Carried somehow, somewhither, for some reason, on these surging floods, were these travelers, […]. Even such a boat as the Mount Vernon offered a total deck space so cramped as to leave secrecy or privacy well out of the question, even had the motley and democratic assemblage of passengers been disposed to accord either.
2. (poker slang) A full house.
3. A vehicle, utensil, or dish somewhat resembling a boat in shape.

4. (chemistry) One of two possible conformations of cyclohexane rings (the other being chair), shaped roughly like a boat.
5. (Australia, politics, informal) The refugee boats arriving in Australian waters, and by extension, refugees generally.

Usage notes

• There is no explicit limit, but the word boat usually refers to a relatively small watercraft, smaller than a ship but larger than a dinghy. It is also the normal designation for a submarine (however large), and also for lakers (ships used in the Great Lakes trade in North America).

Synonyms

• (craft on or in water): craft, ship, vessel

Hyponyms

Derived terms

Translations

Descendants

• Esperanto: boato
• Dhivehi: ????? (b??u)
• Fijian: boto
• Hijazi Arabic: ???? (b?t)
• Japanese: ??? (b?to)
• Pitcairn-Norfolk: boet (Norfuk)
• Sinhalese: ???????? (b???uwa)
• Swahili: boti
• Scots: boat, bote (compare native bait, bate)
• Tahitian: poti
• Tok Pisin: bot

See also

• Category:Watercraft

References

• Weisenberg, Michael (2000) The Official Dictionary of Poker. MGI/Mike Caro University. ?ISBN

Verb

boat (third-person singular simple present boats, present participle boating, simple past and past participle boated)

1. (intransitive) To travel by boat.
2. (transitive) To transport in a boat.

   to boat goods

3. (transitive) To place in a boat.

   to boat oars

Translations

Anagrams

• Bato, Tabo, atob, btoa

Finnish

Noun

boat

1. nominative plural of boa

Anagrams

• abot

Latin

Verb

boat

1. third-person singular present active indicative of bo?

Malay

Alternative forms

• buat

Etymology

From Proto-Malayic *buat, from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *buhat.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /buat/
• Rhymes: -uat, -wat, -at

Verb

boat (1701, used in the form berboat)

1. Obsolete form of buat.

West Frisian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bo??t/

Noun

boat n (plural boaten, diminutive boatsje or boatke)

1. boat

Derived terms

• stoomboat
• ûnderseeboat

Further reading

• “boat (I)”, in Wurdboek fan de Fryske taal (in Dutch), 2011

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English towen, from Old English togian, from Proto-Germanic *tug?n? (Middle High German zogen, German ziehen, Dutch tijgen, Old Norse toga), from Proto-Indo-European *dewk-.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: t?, IPA^(key): /t??/
• (US) enPR: t?, IPA^(key): /to?/
• Rhymes: -??
• Homophone: toe

Verb

tow (third-person singular simple present tows, present participle towing, simple past and past participle towed)

1. (transitive) To pull something behind one using a line or chain; to haul.
2. (running, cycling, motor racing, etc.) To aid someone behind by shielding them from wind resistance.

Translations

Noun

tow (plural tows)

1. The act of towing and the condition of being towed.

   It isn't the car's battery; I think I need a tow.

2. Something, such as a tugboat, that tows.
3. Something, such as a barge, that is towed.
4. A rope or cable used in towing.
5. (motor racing) A speed increase given by driving in front of another car on a straight, which causes a slipstream for the car behind.

Translations

Derived terms

Etymology 2

From Middle English touw, from Old English tow- (“spinning”) (in compounds, e.g. towcræft, towh?s, towlic), from Proto-Germanic *taww?; compare Old Norse tó (“uncleansed wool”), Dutch touw (“rope”). Perhaps cognate with Old English tawian (“prepare for use”), Gothic ???????????????????????? (taujan, “do, make”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: t?, IPA^(key): /t??/, (rare) enPR: tou, IPA^(key): /ta?/
• (US) enPR: t?, IPA^(key): /to?/

Noun

tow (countable and uncountable, plural tows)

1. An untwisted bundle of fibers such as cellulose acetate, flax, hemp or jute.

   • And the strong shall be as tow, and the maker of it as a spark, and they shall both burn together, and none shall quench them.

   1. (specifically) The short, coarse, less desirable fibers separated by hackling from the finer longer fibers (line).

Derived terms

• tow haired
• towhead

Related terms

• taw

Synonyms

• hards, oakum

Translations

References

Anagrams

• OTW, WTO, owt, two, wot

Middle English

Alternative forms

• towe, tow?, tow?e, tough, towhe, togh, tawe, toow

Etymology

From Old English tow-; for more see English tow.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /t?u?/
• Rhymes: -?u?

Noun

tow

1. Unprepared flax, especially used as a firestarter.
2. The fibrous matter of flax or a similar plant; (tow).
3. Oakum, hards; the rough portion of flax separated during hackling.

Descendants

• English: tow
• Scots: towe

References

• “tou, n.(1).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-05-27.