Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A flatbottom Asian skiff usually propelled by two oars.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A small boat used on the coasts of China, Japan, and Java, corresponding to the skiff of Europe and America, and propelled with either sculls or a sail. It is sometimes provided with a fore-and-aft roofing of mats, affording shelter and habitation for a family.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A Chinese boat from twelve to fifteen feet long, covered with a house, and sometimes used as a permanent habitation on the inland waters.
WordNet 3.0
- n. an Asian skiff usually propelled by two oars
Etymologies
- Chinese (Cantonese) saam-paán, equivalent to Chinese (Mandarin) sān, three + bacaron.gifn, board.
Examples
“But the sampan was already by us and wasn't stopping.”
“The surf, through which it is carried in an open boat, called a sampan lonchore, renders such accidents unavoidable.”
“The word "sampan" literally means "three planks" in Cantonese, from the words sam (三, three) and pan (板, plank). [”
“From the depot he hurried through the quaint Japanese streets to the harbor, and hired a sampan boatman to put him aboard a certain vessel whose familiar rigging had quickly caught his eye.”
“And this was one gale of three in the course of those eight days in the sampan.”
“The point is that I was in an open boat, a sampan, on a rocky coast where there were no light-houses and where the tides rip.”
“The next day, when Alf started to go ashore, he found himself surrounded by shouting and gesticulating, though very respectful, sampan men, all extraordinarily anxious to have him for a passenger.”
“A dozen sampan men and boys hailed Alf and offered their services.”
“And for the rest of the Annie Mine's stay in port, the sampan men refused money at Alf Davis's hand.”
“He also said he knew the sampan men to be natural-born robbers, but that so long as they robbed within the law he was powerless.”
jaime_d "The sampan pilot from Siogama to Ishinomaki, the postman galloping from Kyoto to Ogaki, what do they travel but time?" from "Fifty-seven Views of Fujiyama" by Guy Davenport Jan 18, 2010