flyboat

noun

1. A large flat-bottomed coasting vessel, formerly found in Holland, Spain and Portugal.

   historical

   a ship of Bristol was chased into this harbour by two Spanish fly-boats, and they report […] that there are five men of war, Spanish, in the road of Conquet

   August 14, 1595, Thomas Treffry, letter to Sir Robert Cecil

2. A kind of (often horse-drawn) passenger boat formerly used on canals. Faster than other types of canal boats at the time, the horses would run along the towpath

   historical

Where it comes from

Borrowed from Dutch vlieboot, but re-analysed as fly + boat.

Adapted from the Wiktionary entry flyboat (CC BY-SA 4.0).

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