outboard motorboat
- noun
- /ˈaʊtˌbɔrd ˈmɔːrtərˌboʊt/
- Specialized
- We rented an outboard motorboat to explore the coastline during our vacation.
Examples
-
They spent the afternoon fishing from their outboard motorboat near the harbor.
-
Stephen, let's take the outboard motorboat and pay him a call, welcome to Esperanza and all that sort of thing.
-
Since the 1950s, they have used outboard motorboats (Table 3).
Academic text (1990) -
There are three outboard motorboats moored to the sandbags.
Fiction book (1998) -
The guide showed us how to operate the outboard motorboat safely on the lake.
Synonyms
A small fast boat with a motor used for racing or quick trips
A small boat with a motor used for moving on lakes and rivers
A fast boat with a motor used for racing or quick trips
A small boat with a motor on the back that makes it move
How Big
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly derivable from combining 'outboard' (indicating an externally mounted engine) with 'motorboat' (a boat with a motor); the compound simply specifies the type of motorboat. This is a straightforward, compositional compound found across languages, so a B1 learner who knows the constituents will understand it.
Etymology
The name outboard motorboat comes from a simple picture: the motor sits on the outboard of the boat, meaning it is 'outside at the back of the boat'. That's why the term means 'a motorboat powered by an outboard motor'.