showboat
US/ˈʃoʊˌboʊt/
showboat noun: a river steamboat having a resident theatre.
Noun
showboat (plural showboats)
- A river steamboat having a resident theatre.
- And Agnes Moorehead henpecks with stern persistence as Parthy, the captain's loving wife. The sets, which include a full-sized showboat with belching double stacks and sternwheel, are in the best Metro tradition, which means as sumptuous as sumptuous can be.1951 July 20, Bosley Crowther, “THE SCREEN: A MUSICAL FAVORITE AT RADIO CITY; 'Show Boat,' Metro Remake of Hit, With Kathryn Grayson in Lead, at Music Hall 'Never Trust a Gambler,' New Feature of...
- Mr. Sterling was born in Baltimore on June 24, 1915, to Jack Sexton and Edna Cable, veteran performers in vaudeville, showboats and stock companies.1990 November 2, Peter B. Flint, “Jack Sterling, 75, Host on Radio For 18 Years in New York, Dies”, in The New York Times
- A person, often an athlete or performer, who behaves in an ostentatious, flashy manner to attract attention or admiration; a showoff.
- Well, I was a little upset at first. I mean, obviously people are going to think I'm a showboat, and a little bit of a prick.2004, Wes Anderson, Noah Baumbach, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, spoken by Steve Zissou (Bill Murray)
- After the President fired his FBI director in early May, he dismissed Comey as “a showboat,” “a grandstander” and a “nut job.”2017 June 8, Maeve Reston, “Trump meets the ultimate adversary in James Comey”, in CNN
- Synonyms:
- show pony
Verb
showboat (third-person singular simple present showboats, present participle showboating, simple past and past participle showboated)
- To show off.
- Out: Trash talk, dirty play, crybabying, showboating and players who can't be bothered to show up for games or keep their shoes on.1995 June 15, Scott Ostler, “SCOTT OSTLER -- Hakeem Sets Old Standard”, in San Francisco Chronicle
- Their duel had something often lacking in this memorable era of men’s tennis: an edge, as Kyrgios showboated and intentionally smacked balls at Nadal’s body, ignoring the glares that Nadal sometimes fired back.2019 July 4, Christopher Clarey, “Rafael Nadal Doesn’t Fall for Nick Kyrgios’s Bag of Tricks”, in The New York Times
- Synonyms:
- flex, grandstand, stunt, aura farm, boulevardier, cut a wide swath, cut it fat, cut round, exhibitionize, figure away
Synonyms of showboat
- show pony
- flex
- grandstand
- stunt
- aura farm
- boulevardier
- cut a wide swath
- exhibitionize
- floss
- fluff one's feathers
21 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Forms of showboat
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | showboats |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | showboats |
| present participle | showboating |
| past participle | showboated |
| past | showboated |
Origin of showboat
From show + boat.
Words formed from showboat
Questions about showboat
- What does showboat mean?
- Showboat means a river steamboat having a resident theatre.
- What part of speech is showboat?
- Showboat can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce showboat?
- Showboat is pronounced /ˈʃoʊˌboʊt/ (US).
- What is the plural of showboat?
- The plural of showboat is showboats.
Words near showboat in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: showboat (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-showboat.ogg.
Cite this entry: “showboat.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/showboat. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.