catamaran

Definitions

1. A twin-hulled ship or boat.
2. A quarrelsome woman; a scold.
   colloquial, obsolete, rare
3. A raft of three pieces of wood lashed together, the middle piece being longer than the others, and serving as a keel on which the rower squats while paddling.
   obsolete
4. An old kind of fireship.
   obsolete

Equivalents

Examples

“Swift over the seas the vessel drives; Madras appears in sight. The first object catching the eye, upon the anchor being cast⟳, was an Indian upon his catamaran, who, making a sudden motion, sprung to the side of the ship, grappled there for a moment, and the next was on the deck.”

“She meddles with my prescriptions for your wife; she doctors the infant in private: you'll never have⟳ a quiet house or a quiet wife as long as that old Catamaran is here.”

“Three or four strange-looking things now came close⟳ to our boat, which I understood were called ‘catamarans’, consisting of nothing more than two or three large trees, the trunk part only strongly lashed together, upon which sat two men nearly in a state of nature […] .”

CEFR level