boat people

plural noun

refugees who have fled a country by boat, usually without sufficient provisions, navigational aids, or a set destination, especially those who left Indochina by sea as a result of the fall of South Vietnam in 1975.

Origin of boat people

First recorded in 1975–80

Words nearby boat people

boat drill, boat hook, boat nail, boat neck, boat patch, boat people, boat race, boat shoe, boat tail, boat train, boat-tailed grackle

Words related to boat people

foreigner, alien, exile, expatriate, emigrant, evacuee, castaway, renegade, deserter, foundling, outlaw, fugitive, outcast, defector, escapee, leper, prodigal, maroon, derelict, runaway

Example sentences from the Web for boat people

  • At sundown the boat-people anchor their craft in rows to stakes, thus forming boat-terraces as it were.

    Man on the Ocean |R.M. Ballantyne

  • I'll hide about, and mayhap somehow I might get a chance among the boat-people.

    "Us" |Mary Louisa S. Molesworth

  • There exist particular works concerning the history, the customs and laws of these boat-people.

    History of the Pirates Who Infested the China Sea From 1807 to 1810 |Various

  • Though the boat-people were still too far off to distinguish figures, a signal might catch their eye.

    The Settlers at Home |Harriet Martineau

British Dictionary definitions for boat people

boat people

pl n

refugees, esp from Vietnam in the late 1970s, who leave by boat hoping to be picked up by ships of another country