chopboat

English

a chopboat from c. 1800

Alternative forms

chop boat

Etymology

From chop (“stamp, mark of quality, license”) +‎ boat.

Noun

chopboat (plural chopboats)

1. (in China) A licensed lighter (watercraft) employed in the transportation of goods to and from larger vessels.
   • 1856, Samuel Wells Williams, A Chinese Commercial Guide:

     In taking in cargo, the receiving officer should not be interrupted, for he has need of all his carefulness to see that the coolies in the chopboat do not slily pass up a chest with two tallies stuck in it, or slip a package off sideways from the board

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “chopboat”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)