mailboat

English

Etymology

From mail +‎ boat.

Noun

mailboat (plural mailboats)

1. A boat used to transport mail.
   • 1922 February, James Joyce, Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], →OCLC:

     Stephen stood up and went over to the parapet. Leaning on it he looked down on the water and on the mailboat clearing the harbourmouth of Kingstown.

   • 1938, Xavier Herbert, chapter VIII, in Capricornia‎^[1], New York: D. Appleton-Century, published 1943, page 120:

     […] the news and propaganda in imperialistic papers imported once a month by the mail-boat from the South lacked power because it lacked continuity and was stale.

   • 1939 July, “Overseas Railways: Timetable Alterations, G.S.R.”, in Railway Magazine, page 55:

     This train has to await the arrival at Kingsbridge of a train from Dun Laoghaire pier which leaves the latter on arrival of the mailboat from Holyhead.

Translations

a boat used to transport mail

• French: courrier (fr) m
• German: Postschiff (de) n
• Ido: kurieronavo (io)