[f. prec. sb.]
1. trans. To place in a boat; to carry in a boat. To boat the oars: see quot.; cf. to ship oars.
1613. Sherley, Trav. Persia, 19. [They] left me not vntill I was boated.
1681. Discourse of Tanger, 22. The Horses brought for Recruits were boated ashore.
1810. J. T., in Risdon’s Surv. Devon, Introd. 33. The rubble boated out of the tunnel.
1849. Blackw. Mag., LXVI. 697. I was going to be boated off to a transport.
c. 1860. H. Stuart, Seaman’s Catech., 6. To … toss their oars and boat them.
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., To boat the oars, is to cease rowing and lay the oars in the boat.
† 2. intr. To take boat; to embark. Obs.
1610. J. Melvill, Diary (1842), 670. No small concourse of people to sie thame boat.
3. intr. To go in a boat, to row; to conduct a freight-boat (U.S.).
1673. Ray, Journ. Low C., 19. We boated to Antwerp.
1842. Tennyson, E. Morris, 108. The friendly mist of morn Clung to the lake. I boated over, ran My craft aground.
1861. Sat. Rev., 14 Dec., 612. There is a large mass who … well managed, go on reading, and who form friendships and boat, and ride, and enjoy the sweet spring of their life.
1871. M. Collins, Mrq. & Merch., III. xiii. 301. They … boated on the river.
b. To boat it (in same sense).
1687. Addr. Thanks, 10. [They] would Boat it over to Lambeth.
1813. Southey, Life Nelson, II. 110. Nelson himself saw the soundings made … boating it upon this exhausting service, day and night, till it was effected.
1853. Kane, Grinnell Exp., vi. (1856), 45. They boat or sledge it from post to post.
4. To go in a boat upon, sail upon, navigate.
1740–99. [see BOATED.]
1850. Carlyle, Latter-day Pamph., V. 32. Said river … can be waded, boated, swum; [etc.].
