🚢 A ship canal 🛠️ A launch ramp

shipway

9.2

A sloping ramp used to move ships between water and land for building or repair

noun

Specialized

: slipway

Workers carefully guided the vessel down the shipway during the launch ceremony.

Examples

After construction was complete, the ship was lowered into the river via the shipway.
The old shipway at the dockyard was used for repairing fishing boats.
The shipway was built to launch new vessels.
Many shipways can be found along the coast.
After construction was complete, the ship was lowered into the river via the shipway.
Workers carefully guided the vessel down the shipway during the launch ceremony.
The old shipway at the dockyard was used for repairing fishing boats.

Synonyms

slipway

vsshipway

1 7.2

A sloping ramp by water used to move boats into or out of the water

is built to carry vessels for building as well as repair

ways

vsshipway

Specialized

9.9

A sloping ramp that lets ships slide into or out of the water

is built to carry vessels for building as well as launching and repair

Surface Forms

shipway singular

shipways plural

Morphology

shipway = ship + way (semi-transparent) = ship + way

The components are straightforward, but the expression refers to a specialized ship-launching structure, so the exact sense is not fully predictable from the parts alone.

Etymology

Shipway combines ship 'boat' and way 'path' or 'route'. A helpful image is a 'way' down into the water, so shipway can mean the sloping ramp used to carry, launch, or repair ships.