Word.ws English Dictionary

boatswain

/ˈbəʊt.sweɪn//ˈbəʊ.sən/

boatswain noun: the officer (or warrant officer) in charge of sails, rigging, anchors, cables etc. and all work on deck of a sailing ship.

boatswain: the officer (or warrant officer) in charge of sails, rigging, anchors, cables etc. and all work on...
Image: Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

boatswain (plural boatswains)

  1. The officer (or warrant officer) in charge of sails, rigging, anchors, cables etc. and all work on deck of a sailing ship.
  2. The petty officer of a merchant ship who controls the work of other seamen.
  3. A kind of gull, the jaeger.
  4. The tropicbird.

boatswain meaning in Tamil

boatswain in Tamil

கப்பற் பாய்மர அலலுவலர், கல நாயகர், படகின் பொறுப்பாளர், கடற்பறவைவகை

Forms of boatswain

pluralboatswains
alternative formbosun
alternative formbo'sun
alternative formboson
alternative formbos'n
alternative formbo's'n

Origin of boatswain

From Middle English botswain, botswein, bote-swayn, from late Old English bātsweġen, from bāt (“boat”) + sweġen (“swain”), the latter element a borrowing from Old Norse sveinn (“boy”); equivalent to boat + swain (“boy, servant”).

Words formed from boatswain

Phrases with boatswain

Questions about boatswain

What does boatswain mean?
Boatswain means the officer (or warrant officer) in charge of sails, rigging, anchors, cables etc. and all work on deck of a sailing ship.
What is boatswain in Tamil?
Boatswain in Tamil is கப்பற் பாய்மர அலலுவலர், கல நாயகர், படகின் பொறுப்பாளர். See Boatswain meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is boatswain?
Boatswain is a noun.
How do you pronounce boatswain?
Boatswain is pronounced /ˈbəʊ.sən/ (UK).
What is the plural of boatswain?
The plural of boatswain is boatswains.

Words near boatswain in the dictionary

  1. boatsmith
  2. boatsmiths
  3. boatspeak
  4. boatsteerer
  5. boatsteerers
  6. boatswain
  7. Boatswain Bird Island
  8. boatswain's call
  9. boatswain's calls
  10. boatswain's chair
  11. boatswain's chairs

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: boatswain (page history and authors); boatswain (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-boatswain.wav.

Cite this entry: “boatswain.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/boatswain. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.