gunboat

noun

gun·​boat ˈgən-ˌbōt How to pronounce gunboat (audio)
: an armed ship of shallow draft

Examples of gunboat in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web And in 2013, officials aboard a Venezuelan gunboat detained the crew of a seismic vessel contracted by a Texas petroleum company for a week before releasing them. Bert Wilkinson, Quartz, 7 Feb. 2024 During the chaos, hundreds of enslaved laborers fled into the gunboats. Jennie Rothenberg Gritz, Smithsonian Magazine, 13 Dec. 2023 The first-person video released by the Israeli military shows navy fighters on a gunboat using assault rifles and grenades to blast away at people floating in the water. Drew Harwell, Washington Post, 24 Oct. 2023 The service had instead invested in coastal anti-ship missile batteries, Bayraktar drones, and small patrol/gunboats. Sébastien Roblin, Popular Mechanics, 3 Aug. 2023 James Hughes, had taken the precaution of painting large American flags on the gunboat to prevent any mistaken fire. Brad Lendon, CNN, 26 May 2023 Armed guards in black shirts roam the decks, and gunboats from a navy base in nearby Haifa patrol. Stanley Reed Ofir Berman, New York Times, 27 July 2023 On April 10, 1868, the former gunboat departed Sitka for San Francisco, where it would be refitted for commercial use. David Reamer | Alaska History, Anchorage Daily News, 25 June 2023 The former queries were answered, but (the American gunboat’s commander) politely refused to answer the last one. Brad Lendon, CNN, 26 May 2023

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'gunboat.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

First Known Use

1777, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of gunboat was in 1777

Dictionary Entries Near gunboat

Cite this Entry

“Gunboat.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gunboat. Accessed 28 Mar. 2024.

Kids Definition

gunboat

noun
gun·​boat ˈgən-ˌbōt How to pronounce gunboat (audio)
: a small lightly armed ship for use in shallow waters

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