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Glite Dictionary
🎯 A skilled shooter ⛵ A fast boat
sharpshooter

sharpshooter

1 9.9
A fast sailing boat once used by New England fishermen to fish illegally in Canadian waters
  • noun
  • Archaic
translation icon : goleta rápida
  • Many New England fishermen relied on the sharpshooter for quick trips to avoid detection while fishing illegally.

Examples

  • During the 19th century, a sharpshooter was essential for catching fish far from the coastline.

  • The fishing vessel was a sharp sharpshooter, known for its speed during illegal activities in Canadian waters.

  • In her youth, she heard stories of brave captains who ran sharpshooters across the border to fish under cover of darkness.

  • Many vintage photographs show New England sharpshooters docked along the Massachusetts coast.

  • The notorious sharpshooter was spotted near the Grand Banks by a Canadian patrol in 1887.

  • The sharpshooter sailed swiftly through the fog.

  • Many sharpshooters were caught fishing illegally.

Surface Forms

sharpshooter singular
sharpshooters plural

Morphology

sharpshooter = sharp + shooter (opaque) = sharp + shoot + er

Although morphologically composed of 'sharp' + 'shooter', the nautical sense meaning a fast schooner used for illegal fishing is a specialized/metaphorical extension not inferable from the components.

Etymology

Sharpshooter was also used as the name of a fast fishing boat. Ships often get names that show a quality, so calling a vessel a sharpshooter suggests it was quick and could 'slip' into fishing areas under cover of night.