nounplural noun dinghies

• 1A small boat for recreation or racing, especially an open boat with a mast and sails.

  ‘Some categories of boats are full, such as yachts, sailing dinghies and self-drive motor boats.’

  More example sentences

  • ‘Still undaunted by what was acknowledged, at the time, as the longest distance ever sailed in an open dinghy out of sight of land, the King planted a flag at the base to commemorate the event.’
  • ‘Some other members were on hand to demonstrate how to rig the sails on a sailing dinghy and show the layout of a boat to the trainees.’
  • ‘It was an eight-foot sailing dinghy with high freeboard.’
  • ‘Fitz smiled at this, remembering his own boyhood dreams as he'd sailed a small dinghy and thought of bigger boats.’
  • ‘Though the wind seemed disappointingly light, I was excited to be on an 18 foot yacht, having sailed before only in dinghies.’
  • ‘So why would any person in their right mind nail their colours to the mast of a leaky dinghy rather than a majestic tall ship?’
  • ‘The dinghy has three sails and a trapeze, which allows Katherine to lean out of the boat on a wire to counteract the force of the sails and keep the boat upright.’
  • ‘If you don't sail a dinghy well you don't actually go anywhere, but in a cat you pull the sails in and then point vaguely in the right direction and it can go like a bullet from a gun.’
  • ‘Yet Emma has just returned to her roots, sailing a dinghy in the Clyde with a 15-year-old girl from Helensburgh Sailing Club, and professes to have enjoyed every minute of it.’
  • ‘As I looked at these tremendous pedal extremities, I mused that I sail a dinghy, not much bigger than his boots, on the open waters of the Gulf of Thailand.’
  • ‘Should you wish, you can have a sail in a dinghy in the presence of our qualified instructors, but remember to bring some old clothes and a windproof, or relax in our clubhouse and watch racing on the lake.’
  • ‘Moroccan authorities said last week that the suspects planned to sail a dinghy loaded with explosives from Morocco into the strait to attack the vessels.’
  • ‘A friend invited me to go sailing in a dinghy, again on a stormy day.’
  • ‘The access dinghy he uses to sail is controlled by a hand operated joystick, allowing him a freedom of movement he lacks on land.’
  • ‘I used to live in Guernsey and I learnt to windsurf and sail dinghies.’
  • ‘I was sailing dinghies at the time and expressed an interest in having a go at sailmaking as a profession, so I wrote to him and he responded by calling me in for a meeting.’
  • ‘The Standard dinghies have a larger sail of 6.7 square metres.’
  • ‘Angry coastguards in North Wales today condemned as ‘madness’ children being allowed to sail out in tiny dinghies.’
  • ‘He's really in a dinghy, its mast little taller than its sole occupant!’

  1. 1.1A small inflatable rubber boat.
     ‘The lifeboat located four kayakers, who had landed at a cove east of Spain tower, and the lifeboat launched an inflatable dinghy to rescue the stranded kayakers.’
     More example sentences

     • ‘The La Malouine was nearest and proceeded to attempt to pick up the crew that by this time were in their rubber dinghy.’
     • ‘This, too, will be the venue for the Festival Regatta, when inflatable dinghies will race from Barrow Bridge to Spa Bridge.’
     • ‘Police, fire and lifeboat crews used inflatable dinghies to evacuate some of the residents from their homes.’
     • ‘A sailor was left fuming after thieves stole the inflatable dinghy he had used to get from his boat to shore.’
     • ‘The men used an inflatable dinghy to row alongside the SeaFrance vessel as she prepared to leave Calais and then climbed on to a metal fender 6ft above the water level.’
     • ‘There are relatively few amusement arcades but plenty of shops selling brightly-coloured buckets, spades, inflatable dinghies and beach balls, not to mention lettered rock and ices.’
     • ‘For the adventurous, Loves has rubber dinghies, beach balls with attachments and even an innocent, polka-dotted dairy cow.’
     • ‘I use a doubled over sleeping mat to save weight but small inflatable dinghies can be purchased locally and are ideal.’
     • ‘On June 25 this year, he and a friend, Misha, had ventured out into the water on a rubber dinghy, near their friends' country house on Sinovetskoye lake, 69 km from St Petersburg.’
     • ‘He had a visit from a fire and rescue team in a rubber dinghy, checking to make sure he was all right - and at one point his girlfriend Brenda floated supplies down to him from Skeldergate Bridge wrapped in plastic bin-liners.’
     • ‘A busy summer's day on Ullswater turned to tragedy as two girls in an inflatable dinghy watched their father slip beneath the cold waters never to resurface alive, an inquest heard.’
     • ‘New rides being offered for the first time this year include the Wave Runner ride an exciting family water coaster where participant whoosh down a trough of fast-moving water in a rubber dinghy.’
     • ‘Meanwhile, two young boys, aged 8 and 13, had a lucky escape yesterday afternoon when they were carried out to sea on an inflatable dinghy.’
     • ‘We anchor alone in the lee of the cay, pile into the inflatable dinghy, don our masks and fins, and spend the next hour swimming with dolphins.’
     • ‘As the two crewmen parachuted into the sea, the back part of their ejection seats fell away and the bottom part turned into an inflatable dinghy as they hit the water.’
     • ‘Here's a tip - take a bulk spool of line and an inflatable dinghy with you.’
     • ‘A rubber dinghy rushed at full speed to and fro along the Moscow River with a poster saying ‘No war’.’
     • ‘His group set off aboard a rubber dinghy, but was never heard from again.’
     • ‘These are three towering water chutes, in varying levels of steepness, down which you plunge in a rubber dinghy.’