''schooner'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20260917235303-00-⌔

schooner - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

Noun

schooner (plural schooners)

• (nautical) A sailing ship with two or more masts, all with fore-and-aft sails; if two masted, having a foremast and a mainmast.
  • ✤ Synonym: goelette
  • ✤ The night was considerably clearer than anybody on board her desired when the schooner Ventura headed for the land.¹
  • ✤ Designed by Frank Payne’s renowned Boston design office, and built in 1928 of longleaf yellow pine, this 82-footer has been a racing schooner — a staysail schooner — since the heyday of Class-A ocean racing in schooners during the late 1920s and early 1930s.²
  • ✤ In addition to the square-rigged sailing ships, the schooners were the second largest group of large sailing vessels.³
  • ✤ Unfortunately, anyone looking for a schooner today has limited choices. In the used boat market there are always some wooden hulls available, and occasionally ones of steel or aluminum, but fiberglass-hulled schooners are harder to come by.⁴
• (UK) A glass for drinking a large measure of sherry.
  • ✤ Boycott any pub that bans work clothes, allows customers to reserve tables or only sells beer in schooners. That is less a pub, more a private members’ club.⁵
• (Australia) A glass of beer, of a size which varies between states (Wikipedia).
  • ✤ Foaming schooners of beer grew ever larger and more numerous as the crimson February suns went to their rest.⁶
  • ✤ At first I refused, but ten schooners later I was ready to take on Jaws with a butterknife[.]⁷
  • ✤ And needless to say, the Western Australia row will eventually be filled in as well, though not before drinking a schooner of the amber nectar in Perth.⁸
  • ✤ For a true Adelaide experience, head for the bar and order a schooner of Coopers, the local brew, or a glass of SA′s impressive wine.⁹
• (US) A large goblet or drinking glass, used for lager or ale (Wikipedia).
• (historical) A covered wagon used by emigrants.

Etymology

Attested ca. 1715, of uncertain origin. Said to be derived from dialectal scoon (“to skim over water”). Compare also shunt (“to cause to move (suddenly)”).

Pronunciation

• IPA: /skuːnə(ɹ)/
• Audio (Australia): 🔊
• Rhymes: -uːnə(ɹ)

Printed 2026-09-17.

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Footnotes

1. 1907 January, Harold Bindloss, chapter 6, in The Dust of Conflict, 1st Canadian edition, Toronto, Ont.: McLeod & Allen, →OCLC: ↩

2. 2004, Reese Palley, The Best of Nautical Quarterly: Volume 1: The Lure of Sail ‎${}^{[1]}$, page 181: ↩

3. 2005, Otmar Schäuffelen, Chapman: Great Sailing Ships of the World ‎${}^{[2]}$, page xxi: ↩

4. 2007, Donald Launer, Lessons from My Good Old Boat ‎${}^{[3]}$, page 240: ↩

5. 2018 June 6, Tony Naylor, “The new rules of pub etiquette: don’t flirt with bar staff or steal the glasses”, in The Guardian ‎${}^{[4]}$, →ISSN: ↩

6. a. 1964, Arthur Upfield, “Fozen Pumps”, in Kees de Hoog, editor, Up and Down Australia: Short Stories Selected by Kees de Hoog ‎${}^{[5]}$, published 2008, page 67: ↩

7. 1995, Paul Vautin, Turn It Up!, Sydney: Pan Macmillan Australia, page 193: ↩

8. 2004, Ken Ewell, Voyages of Discovery: A Manly Adventure in the Lands Down Under ‎${}^{[6]}$, page 94: ↩

9. 2009, Charles Rawlings-Way, Meg Worby, Lindsay Brown, Paul Harding, Central Australia: Adelaide to Darwin ‎${}^{[7]}$, Lonely Planet, page 59: ↩