Adjacent Words

catamaran definitions

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WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: a sailboat with two parallel hulls held together by single deck

Merriam Webster's

noun Etymology: Tamil ka??umaram, from ka??u to tie + maram tree, wood Date: 1673 a vessel (as a sailboat) with twin hulls and usually a deck or superstructure connecting the hulls

Britannica Concise

Twin-hulled sailing and engine-powered boat. Its design was based on a raft of two logs bridged by planks used by peoples in the Indonesian archipelago, Polynesia, and Micronesia. Up to 70 ft (21 m) long, early catamarans were paddled by many men and used for travel, in war, and in recreation. Especially after the sail was added, voyages as long as 2,000 mi (3,700 km) were made. In the 1870s they sailed so successfully against monohulled boats that they were barred from racing. The modern catamaran, which averages about 40 ft (12 m) in length, has been produced since 1950. They are very fast craft, achieving speeds of 20 mph (32 kph).

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. 1 a boat with twin hulls in parallel. 2 a raft of yoked logs or boats. 3 colloq. a quarrelsome woman. Etymology: Tamil kattumaram tied wood

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Catamaran Cat`a*ma*ran", n. [The native East Indian name.] 1. A kind of raft or float, consisting of two or more logs or pieces of wood lashed together, and moved by paddles or sail; -- used as a surf boat and for other purposes on the coasts of the East and West Indies and South America. Modified forms are much used in the lumber regions of North America, and at life-saving stations. 2. Any vessel with twin hulls, whether propelled by sails or by steam; esp., one of a class of double-hulled pleasure boats remarkable for speed. 3. A kind of fire raft or torpedo bat. The incendiary rafts prepared by Sir Sidney Smith for destroying the French flotilla at Boulogne, 1804, were called catamarans. --Knight. 4. A quarrelsome woman; a scold. [Colloq.]

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(catamarans) A catamaran is a sailing boat with two parallel hulls that are held in place by a single deck. N-COUNT

1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue

An old scraggy woman; from a kind of float made of spars and yards lashed together, for saving ship-wrecked persons.