[f. BOAT sb. + MAN.]
1. A man who manages a boat.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, VI. v. 41. This sorofull boitman.
1514. Fitzherb., Just. Peas (1538), 39. Enquere of botemen, and bargemen.
1600. C. Sutton, Disce Mori, xxix. (1838), 297. Do not as boatmen are wont, who row one way but look another.
1855. Singleton, Virgil, II. 105. The boatman from the Stygian wave.
1871. Morley, Voltaire (1886), 78. Meeting a boatman one day on the Thames.
2. = BOAT-FLY.
1841. E. Newman, Hist. Insects, 106. The boatman dives under the water, occasionally coming to the surface for a supply of air. Ibid., 267. Water-boatmen or Notonectites.