Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
Usage examples of "motor-boat".
Fumes, oil, and bacteria from motor-boats and human waste leaching into the water create new challenges that were never posed by bugs and plankton.
It seemed to Roger that the two men in the second motor-boat were looking intently towards the bungalow.
He made vague sightseeing tours of the city: a motor-boat trip along the Chao Phraya and the market canals, a look at the Monastery of the Dawn and the Emerald Buddha in the Wat Phra Keo, doing the rounds, taking his time, enjoying himself while I had to sit with the AO Jupiters focused at a hundred yards and one foot over the clutch, one hand on the starter switch, the gear already in, one eye on the mirror so that I didn't smash someone up if I had to take two seconds to get out of a parking gap it had taken twenty minutes to find.
Soon the purring of the motor-boat, getting fainter and fainter, sounded in the night.
We had been out on the lake in the motor-boat fishing all the afternoon and--well, I must admit both my uncles had had frequent recourse to 'pocket pistols,' and I remember they referred to it each time as 'bait.