yacht

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A slick and light ship for making pleasure trips or racing on water, having sails but often motor-powered. At times used as a residence offshore on a dock.

   Would you like to go sailing on my uncle’s yacht?

2. 2
   noun

   Any vessel used for private, noncommercial purposes.

   “I don’t mean all of your friends—only a small proportion—which, however, connects your circle with that deadly, idle, brainless bunch—the insolent chatterers at the opera,[…], the chlorotic squatters on huge yachts,[…], the neurotic victims of mental cirrhosis, the jewelled animals whose moral code is the code of the barnyard—!"

3. 3
   noun

   an expensive vessel propelled by sail or power and used for cruising or racing

4. 4
   verb

   travel in a yacht

5. 5
   verb

   To sail, voyage, or race in a yacht.

6. 6
   name

   A type of dice game, similar to the Latin American game Generala.

Etymology

Circa 1557; variant of yaught, earlier yeaghe (“light, fast-sailing ship”), from Dutch jacht (“yacht; hunt”), in older spelling jaght(e), short for jaghtschip (“light sailing vessel, fast pirate ship”, literally “pursuit ship”), compound of jacht and schip (“ship”). In the 16th century the Dutch built light, fast ships to chase the ships of pirates and smugglers from the coast. The ship was introduced to England in 1660 when the Dutch East India Company presented one to King Charles II, who used it as a pleasure boat, after which it was copied by British shipbuilders as a pleasure craft for we…