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
Recent Examples of Synonyms for sampan
Noun
  • There are also boat tours, kayak and canoe rentals, hiking, and fishing within the park.
    Evie Carrick, Travel + Leisure, 14 Oct. 2025
  • Seminoles were able to row their canoes on the river right up to the building to conduct business with Frank.
    Amanda Rosa, Miami Herald, 10 Oct. 2025
Noun
  • Julie Andrews was repeatedly toppled by helicopter downdrafts while filming the opening scene, the rowboat sequence nearly ended in disaster when the boat capsized and Gretl (Kym Karath) almost drowned.
    Cathy Whitlock, Architectural Digest, 12 Sep. 2025
  • Chinese-style mud houses line the lake’s edge—their curved roofs reflected in still waters as wooden rowboats drift past floating lanterns.
    Lewis Nunn, Forbes.com, 24 Aug. 2025
Noun
  • On Monday morning, Duane and Bill took the skiff to the far side of the lake.
    Marguerite Reiss, Outdoor Life, 9 Oct. 2025
  • But those were mere skiffs by comparison with the general-entertainment battleships.
    Anthony D'Alessandro, Deadline, 12 Sep. 2025
Noun
  • Kelly’s father owned a pontoon boat that, in high school, had been off limits.
    David Wright Faladé, New Yorker, 28 Sep. 2025
  • The result is what seems to be a cross between a catamaran and a giant fishing pontoon with a large open deck measuring 900 ft² (83 m²) that can handle standard shipping containers weighing up to 30 tonnes.
    New Atlas, New Atlas, 28 Sep. 2025
Noun
  • The feature brings together a raft of rising Arab production talent.
    Melanie Goodfellow, Deadline, 9 Oct. 2025
  • While gently gliding down a clear Jamaican river, surrounded by dense green jungle, the sound of water trickling along the raft and birds in the distance gives the video an idyllic feel at first glance.
    Alice Gibbs, MSNBC Newsweek, 3 Oct. 2025
Noun
  • Offshore, kite surfers dance across the lagoon while fishermen paddle slender pirogues above shallow coral gardens alive with neon wrasse and ghostly butterflyfish.
    Lewis Nunn, Forbes.com, 8 Aug. 2025
  • Colorful traditional wooden outrigger canoes called pirogues line the beach where men spend hours mending their nets.
    Sira Thierij, NPR, 26 Dec. 2024
Noun
  • Several California State Parks Ocean Lifeguards earned the Heroic Act Award for treating an Fijian outrigger paddler having a cardiac arrest during a trek from Catalina to Newport Beach.
    Laylan Connelly, Oc Register, 11 Oct. 2025
  • Plunge into the pristine waters for snorkeling, kayaking, outrigger canoeing or stand-up paddleboarding.
    Jennifer Kester, Forbes.com, 10 Sep. 2025
Noun
  • The family friends promised to help Wade find work at a seafood processing plant or on a fish-buying scow.
    Bjorn Dihle, Outdoor Life, 4 Sep. 2025
  • In a startling revelation, the crew members aboard this intergalactic garbage scow turn out to be the descendants of American astronauts launched 200 years earlier during humanity's pre-warp, post-World War III days.
    Jeff Spry, Space.com, 20 Aug. 2025

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Cite this Entry

“Sampan.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/sampan. Accessed 20 Oct. 2025.

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