swift boat
swift boat noun: a small, shallow draft water vessel used by the United States navy for counterinsurgency (COIN) operations during the Vietnam War; Fast Patrol Craft (PCF).
Noun (1)
swift boat (plural swift boats)
Verb
swift boat (third-person singular simple present swift boats, present participle swift boating, simple past and past participle swift boated)
- to put forth sensational negative stories about a political figure as part of a smear campaign against them, especially regarding their military record
- “There is simply the desire to paint an entire religion as the enemy,” he said. Referring to Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, the founder of the proposed Muslim center near ground zero, “What they did to Imam Feisal was highly strategic. The signal was, we can Swift Boat your most moderate leaders.”2010 September 6, Laurie Goodstein, “American Muslims Ask, Will We Ever Belong?”, in New York Times
- Swift-boating is the new term used to describe a dirty campaign that tries to paint a war hero as unpatriotic.2007, Lee Iacocca, Where have all the leaders gone?
Noun (2) capitalized: Swift Boat
Swift Boat (plural Swift Boats)
- Alternative letter-case form of swift boat
Forms of swift boat
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | swift boats |
| alternative form | swiftboat |
| alternative form | Swift Boat |
| plural | Swift Boats |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | swift boats |
| present participle | swift boating |
| past participle | swift boated |
| past | swift boated |
Origin of swift boat
From a campaign in 2004 by the political group Swift Boat Veterans for Truth that sought to challenge the legitimacy of each combat medal awarded by the U.S. Navy to presidential candidate John Kerry, and the disposition of his discharge.
Questions about swift boat
- What does swift boat mean?
- Swift boat means a small, shallow draft water vessel used by the United States navy for counterinsurgency (COIN) operations during the Vietnam War; Fast Patrol Craft (PCF).
- What part of speech is swift boat?
- Swift boat can be a noun or a verb.
- What is the plural of swift boat?
- The plural of swift boat is swift boats.
Words near swift boat in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: swift boat (page history and authors); Swift Boat (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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Cite this entry: “swift boat.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/swift_boat. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.