English Explanatory Dictionary

packet boat

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. An ocean-going ship chartered by the government to carry the mail and official communications.
  2. A boat that carried mail, cargo, and, in later years, some passengers along a regularly scheduled route up and down a river or canal.
  3. A boat specifically designed to provide transportation to passengers on a regular schedule up and down a river or canal.

Word forms

packet boat packet boats packet-boat packetboat

Etymology

From packet, meaning the packets of mail that were carried. For the passenger boats, the name derives from the boats that carried mail (and sometimes passengers) on rivers or canals, from which these services evolved.

This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.
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