sampan

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of sampan It’s crowded with houseboats, fishing vessels, roving vendors in sampans, and multi-story floating restaurants that drew tourists until the COVID-19 pandemic forced them to shutter. H.m.a. Leow, JSTOR Daily, 6 June 2025 Hong Kong: Hong Kong Harbor, one of the world’s most scenic, rewards passengers with vistas of skyscrapers, mountains, ferries and sampans. Georgina Cruz, Miami Herald, 30 Jan. 2024 Malay, Chinese and Indian laborers did laundry, steered sampan boats and cleared land for the White military members. Lilit Marcus, CNN, 16 Sep. 2022 Max, 6, my youngest, bolted past the staff lined up to greet us and planted his nose on the lee-side picture window to watch a woman in a conical hat haul a net of glittering fish onto her sampan. Laura Dannen Redman, Condé Nast Traveler, 20 July 2018 Housed in a pastel-yellow colonial building opposite a 16th-century church, its entrance is flanked by tall vases, depicting sampan gliding between karst hills. The Economist, 19 May 2018 The petite young woman who rowed our sampan had powerful, broad shoulders and tough, worn hands gripping the oars. Diana Lambdin Meyer, kansascity.com, 9 May 2017 Small sampan boats, ox carts, tuk-tuks, bicycle rickshaws, and your own two feet get you through two countries heavy with history. Veronica Stoddart, Condé Nast Traveler, 31 Mar. 2017
Recent Examples of Synonyms for sampan
Noun
  • There happened to be a canoe in Sarah’s carport, in Pittsboro.
    Jessica Pishko, New Yorker, 15 July 2025
  • In 1974, Margaret and Harold Hedges, brothers Stewart and Steve Noland, and Coleman Holt climbed into three canoes to put in at Dixon Ford to become the first people known to run this stretch of the Buffalo River.
    arkansasonline.com, arkansasonline.com, 6 July 2025
Noun
  • Newton enlisted the help of his younger brother and a friend, who agreed to follow along behind him in a rowboat with food and other supplies.
    Nick Woltman, Twin Cities, 6 July 2025
  • Adventure intel: Green Lake, the larger of the two, has a sandy public beach with swimming access and a boat house that rents rowboats and kayaks (from $12 an hour).
    Jen Murphy, Outside Online, 22 May 2025
Noun
  • Beyond, two men in straw hats share a skiff, an image of blissful communion.
    James Meyer, Artforum, 1 May 2025
  • And today there’s a big casino with roller skating where Old Man Dill used to moor the three leaky skiffs which comprised his boat livery.
    Ted Janes, Outdoor Life, 29 May 2025
Noun
  • Explore more than 75 boats, including pontoons, deck boats and bow riders from more than a dozen top brands.
    Luann Gibbs, The Enquirer, 2 July 2025
  • Ski Patrol rents ski boats and pontoons ($225 for two hours) as well as jet skis ($180 for two hours).
    Jen Murphy, Outside Online, 22 May 2025
Noun
  • Search and Rescue is a volunteer on-the-ground team that uses drones, K-9 units, rafts, and more to comb large areas in the aftermath of natural disasters.
    Elizabeth Logan, Glamour, 7 July 2025
  • Brown provided the raft for the group’s protest and followed along in a van, while another vehicle trailed with emergency lights flashing.
    Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 6 July 2025
Noun
  • Colorful traditional wooden outrigger canoes called pirogues line the beach where men spend hours mending their nets.
    Sira Thierij, NPR, 26 Dec. 2024
  • As the team began to pull up its fishing nets, the pirogue pitched sharply.
    Jack Thompson, The Christian Science Monitor, 4 June 2024
Noun
  • The Sentinelese hunt in the rainforest and fish in the coastal waters using spears, bows and arrows, as well as homemade narrow outrigger canoes, according to Survival International.
    Esha Mitra, CNN Money, 4 Apr. 2025
  • Travelers interested in Polynesian culture may want to test the resort’s traditional outrigger canoe on a trip to one of the surrounding private islets that share an atoll with the Brando.
    Laura Begley Bloom, AFAR Media, 25 Feb. 2025
Noun
  • Work scows were up to 90 feet long and hauled coal, grain and limestone.
    Diana Lambdin Meyer, USA Today, 28 June 2025
  • Instead, its members have up to 50 small, modest, one- and two-person dinghies, 20-foot racing scows, and a few larger craft.
    Robert McCoppin, Chicago Tribune, 14 June 2025

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Cite this Entry

“Sampan.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/sampan. Accessed 21 Jul. 2025.

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