garbage scow
- noun
- /ˈɡɑːrbɪdʒ skaʊ/
- Archaic
- Ferryboats, barges, and garbage scows sliced through the water as muscled tugboats approached to guide the troopship toward her berth in the East River.
Examples
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At last, before we were asphyxiated by rotting horseflesh, a garbage scow came to our rescue.
Academic text (1999) -
Our only hope now, is to outrun that Imperial garbage scow, tho'.
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I'm the new science officer on this garbage scow and you are in my seat!
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They called the Enterprise a garbage scow.
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That sagging, old rust bucket is designed like a garbage scow.
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In addition, vessel traffic, which included container ships, garbage scows, dredges, and barges laden with sludge, acid waste, and petroleum products, became heavy (Bennett, 1984).
Academic text (1990) -
The city hired a new garbage scow to remove waste from the harbor.
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After the festival, a garbage scow collected all the leftover refuse from the docks.
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Residents watched as the garbage scow navigated through the river, headed for the landfill.
Synonyms
A large truck that collects and carries household waste
A flat boat with sloping ends that carries goods in shallow water
A truck that takes away waste and unwanted items
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a barge used to carry waste' is directly and transparently derived from combining 'garbage' (waste/refuse) with 'scow' (a type of barge). This regular noun–noun compounding follows straightforward compositional logic and would be understandable to a B1 learner who knows both constituent words.
Etymology
The noun garbage scow comes from a simple picture: a low, wide boat called a scow piled high with garbage. So it means 'a boat used to carry trash', and people used the name for the barges that take waste away from harbors and rivers.