How to use dory in a sentence

13 example sentences · noun, adjective

Dory means a small flat-bottomed boat with pointed or somewhat pointed ends, used for fishing both offshore and on rivers. Example: “The dory, and the fisherman who rowed it, are part of the maritime heritage that changed America from a group of shore-bound colonies to a nation with ships that ranged the waters of the world.”

Examples of dory by meaning

nounA small flat-bottomed boat with pointed or somewhat pointed ends, used for fishing both offshore and on rivers.

The dory, and the fisherman who rowed it, are part of the maritime heritage that changed America from a group of shore-bound colonies to a nation with ships that ranged the waters of the world.1960 February, John Gardner, “The Remarkable Dory: This Boat has Served Sailormen Well, and Many of Today's Able Pleasurecraft are Direct...
Gaily painted, with lots of sheer and a defiantly jaunty look to them, the dories have been pleasing the eyes of their beholders for nearly a century.1978 March, Steven H. Rubin, “The St. Pierre Dory: An Endangered Species”, in Boating, volume 43, number 3, →ISSN, page 72
A dory, by definition, is a flat-bottomed boat with two pointed (or nearly pointed) ends.2008, Jeanna Rosembalm Bottenberg, The Dory Fleet of Pacific City, Charleston, S.C.: Arcadia Publishing, →ISBN, page 41

nounAny of several different families of large-eyed, silvery, deep-bodied, laterally compressed, and roughly discoid marine...

Barramundi, bream, flounder, garfish, John Dory, snapper and Silver Dory are suitable for this recipe.2012, Shirley Cameron, Cooking the Australian Way, 8th edition, South Yarra, Vic.: Macmillan Education Australia, →ISBN, page 265
The golden skin of the fish found mostly in the Mediterranean may account for one possible reason why it is called ‘John Dory’, since the French word for yellow is ‘jaune’ and for golden is ‘dorée’.2012, Martin Hannan, Harvey Wallbangers and Tam O’Shanters: A Book of Eponyms – The People Who Inspired the Words We Use Every Day, London...

nounA wooden pike or spear about three metres (ten feet) in length with a flat, leaf-shaped iron spearhead and a bronze...

The basic weapon of the hoplite was the dory, a wooden-shaft spear six to nine feet long with a metal point at each end.1990, Richard A. Gabriel, The Culture of War: Invention and Early Development (Contributions in Military Studies; 96), New York, N.Y....
The principal offensive weapon of the hoplite was his spear (dory).2000, Nick Sekunda, Greek Hoplite: 480–323 BC (Osprey Military, Warrior Series; 27), Oxford: Osprey Publishing, →ISBN, page 12
The principal weapon of the hoplite was the dory spear.2011 (republished 2014 as an e-book), Chris McNab, A History of the World in 100 Weapons, Oxford: Osprey Publishing, page 37

More sentences with dory

The dory thus went down the whole length of the trawl.2012, Jack Coggins, Marine Painter's Guide. From the entry rebait
You can’t expect everything to be hunky dory straight away.2023 May 28, James Tapper, quoting woman approaching middle age, “‘We should be closer to Europe’: Brexit regrets simmer in leave-voting…. From the entry hunky dory
The dory was high and dry on the beach, enveloped in the now familiar stench of rotting cod-livers.1969, Farley Mowat, “Voyage of the “Oregon””, in The Boat Who Wouldn’t Float, New York, N.Y.: Bantam Books, published 1981, →ISBN, page 128. From the entry cod-liver
As the fishery evolved, the practical and beautiful butterfly fleet—dories named for their widespread sails—gave way to more prosaic but still handsome diesel sternpickers and bowpickers.2012, Robert Michael Pyle, Sky Time in Gray's River: Living for Keeps in a Forgotten Place, →ISBN. From the entry sternpicker
The wind was blowing great guns, and although dories are not notorious for their pace we made good time, and covered some ten miles in a short space of time.1904, Charles Robert Eustace Radclyffe, Big Game Shooting in Alaska, page 201. From the entry great guns

Meaning of dory

noun A small flat-bottomed boat with pointed or somewhat pointed ends, used for fishing both offshore and on rivers.
noun Any of several different families of large-eyed, silvery, deep-bodied, laterally compressed, and roughly discoid marine fish.
adjective Of a bright yellow or golden color.

Full definition of dory

Questions about dory in a sentence

How do you use dory in a sentence?: Dory is used as a noun and adjective. For example: “The dory, and the fisherman who rowed it, are part of the maritime heritage that changed America from a group of shore-bound colonies to a nation with ships that ranged the waters of the world.”
What is a short sentence with dory?: “The principal weapon of the hoplite was the dory spear.”
What does dory mean?: Dory means a small flat-bottomed boat with pointed or somewhat pointed ends, used for fishing both offshore and on rivers.

Adapted from Wiktionary: dory (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Cite this page: “How to use dory in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/dory. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.