A boat propelled by steam; esp. a coasting or river steamer of considerable size, carrying either passengers or goods. Also attrib.
1787. M. Cutler, in Life, etc. (1888), II. 399. In all probability, steamboats will be found to do infinite service in all our extensive river navigation.
1814. Scott, Diary, 8 Sept., in Lockhart. Embarked in the steam-boat for Glasgow.
1817–8. Cobbett, Resid. U.S. (1822), 268. We are now frequently met and passed by large, fine steam-boats, plying up and down the river.
1866. Lowell, Study Wind., Swinburne’s Trag. (1871), 162. A Mississippi steamboat captain.
1906. Tribune, 5 Dec., 6/3. The Thames steamboat service.
b. fig.
1823. Byron, Juan, IX. lxxiv. I needs must rhyme with dove, That good old steam-boat which keeps verses moving ’Gainst reason.
1854. Mrs. Stowe, Sunny Memories, I. xvi. 296. If he [Abp. Whately] had been born in our latitude … the natives would have … said he was a real steamboat on an argument.
1859. Bartlett, Dict. Amer. (ed. 2), 449. Steam-boat, a term used at the West to denote a dashing, go-a-head character.
Hence Steamboating vbl. sb. a. travelling by steamboat; the business of working on or operating a steamboat; b. fig. (see quots. 1875, 1891).
1834. Lady Granville, Lett., 9 Sept. (1894), II. 162. Having enjoyed our steamboating on the Rhone so much.
1856. Lever, Martins of Cro’ M., lxv. 601. That rattling, noisy steam-boating up the Rhine.
1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., Steamboating (Bookbinding), cutting simultaneously a pile of books which are as yet uncovered, that is, are out of boards.
1883. Athenæum, 2 June, 694/3. They treat of a time when steamboating was a great industry [on the Mississippi].
1891. Century Dict., Steamboating 2. Undue hurrying and slighting of work. (Colloq.)
