1. a flat-bottomed boat used for transporting goods on rivers and shallow waters
Usage: nautical; historical

Examples

• The settlers loaded their belongings onto a flatboat to travel down the Ohio River.
• Flatboats were essential for transporting crops from farms to markets in the 1800s.
• The wooden flatboat could carry heavy cargo in shallow water where other vessels couldn’t go.
• Many pioneers used flatboats to move their families westward along the river systems.
• The flatboat’s simple design made it easy to build and operate on inland waterways.
• River merchants relied on flatboats to transport goods downstream to trading posts.