bateau

[ ba-toh; French ba-toh ]

/ bæˈtoʊ; French baˈtoʊ /

Also batteau. Nautical.

Chiefly Canadian and Southern U.S.. a small, flat-bottomed rowboat used on rivers.
a half-decked, sloop-rigged boat used for fishing on Chesapeake Bay; skipjack.
(in some regions) a scow.

a pontoon of a floating bridge.

Origin of bateau

1705–15, Americanism; < French; Old French batel, equivalent to bat (< Old English bāt boat) + -el diminutive suffix < Latin -ellus; see -elle

There they climbed out on the rock and secured the bateau by a couple of turns of the rope around a smaller block.

The Secret Cache |E. C. [Ethel Claire] Brill
The breeze holding steady, the bateau made fairly good speed.

The Secret Cache |E. C. [Ethel Claire] Brill
Then commenced the era of bateau navigation, and the advent of a peculiar race of men, of whom now no trace remains.

Graham's Magazine Vol XXXII No. 6 June 1848 |Various
Take hold of the painter of the bateau, and haul it alongside.

Watch and Wait |Oliver Optic

There were boxes in the bateau, covered by a tarpaulin whose stripings of red signaled danger.

Joan of Arc of the North Woods |Holman Day

bateau

/ (bæˈtəʊ, French bato) /

a light flat-bottomed boat used on rivers in Canada and the northern US

C18: from French: boat, from Old French batel, from Old English bāt; see boat