dhoni

English

Alternative forms

Etymology

Borrowed from Dhivehi ދޯނި (dōni).

Noun

dhoni (plural dhonis)

  1. A handcrafted sailboat with a motor or lateen sails, resembling a dhow, that is used in the Maldives.
    • 1889, Rudyard Kipling, “Only A Subaltern”, in Under the Deodars, Boston: The Greenock Press, published 1899, page 141:
      The witchery of the dawn turned the grey river-reaches to purple, gold, and opal; and it was as though the lumbering dhoni crept across the splendors of a new heaven.
    • 2007 January 28, Elaine Glusac, “It’s Night. Shall We Snorkel, Cycle or Hike?”, in New York Times‎[1]:
      Guests at the new Anantara Resort Maldives, opened in September on a five-acre island in the South Male Atoll, can shove off at sunset to fish from an indigenous dhoni sailboat, trailing local tackle — that is, a baited hook on a fishing line.

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