dinghy

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a small open boat propelled by oars or a motor, often carried or towed by a larger vessel

   They rowed the dinghy from the anchored yacht to the harbor.

2. 2
   noun

   a small sailing boat used for recreation, training, or racing

   She learned to sail in a two-person dinghy.

3. 3
   noun

   an inflatable life raft carried for emergencies

   The crew inflated the emergency dinghy after abandoning the aircraft.

Borrowed in the early nineteenth century from Bengali ḍiṅgi and related Urdu and Hindi words for a small boat. The Indian coastal-boat sense broadened in English to several kinds of small craft.

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