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Glite Dictionary
👀 Big round eyes 🚗 Car with big lights ⛵ Sailing vessel
bugeye

bugeye

9.9
A traditional two-masted sailing boat from Chesapeake Bay that fishermen use to collect oysters
  • noun
  • /ˈbjuːɡaɪ/
  • Specialized
translation icon : bugeye
  • Oyster dredging is often done from a bugeye, making it an essential vessel in the Chesapeake fishing industry.

Examples

  • The fisherman skillfully maneuvered the bugeye through the shallow waters of the Chesapeake Bay.

  • First and foremost for me, however, was James Cagney, who ran a farm in Chilmark and sailed his Chesapeake Bugeye in Vineyard waters.

    Fiction book (1999)

  • During the annual regatta, several bugeyes gathered to showcase their unique designs and traditional sails.

Synonyms

pungy
vsbugeye
  • Archaic
9.9

A boat with two masts that carried oysters and goods in the Chesapeake Bay

is designed mainly for oyster dredging with a broad hull and centerboard

Surface Forms

bugeye singular
bugeyes plural

Morphology

bugeye = bug + eye (opaque) = bug + eye

The form is clearly from 'bug' + 'eye', but the specific nautical meaning (a two-masted Chesapeake Bay oyster boat) is specialized and not deducible from the components alone.

Etymology

A helpful way to remember the boat called a bugeye is to think of bug + eye, meaning 'insect eye', because the old Chesapeake workboats had broad, rounded shapes and features that gave them a bulbous, eye-like look. That's why fishermen called that two-masted oyster boat a bugeye and it became a clear name for this kind of vessel.