PONTOON • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • Definition of Pontoon

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/pɑntˈun/ Listen

noun

Pontoon n.

(Mil.) A wooden flat-bottomed boat, a metallic cylinder, or a frame covered with canvas, India rubber, etc., forming a portable float, used in building bridges quickly for the passage of troops.

(Naut.) A low, flat vessel, resembling a barge, furnished with cranes, capstans, and other machinery, used in careening ships, raising weights, drawing piles, etc., chiefly in the Mediterranean; a lighter.

Pontoon bridge, a bridge formed with pontoons.

Pontoon train, the carriages of the pontoons, and the materials they carry for making a pontoon bridge. Note: The French spelling ponton often appears in scientific works, but pontoon is more common form.

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Etymology of 'Pontoon'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Pontoon" Quotes from Famous Books

... first arrival at an out-port, and as you are crossing the pontoon which leads from the steamer to the bund, a most beaming celestial meets you and presents an open letter, which runs something ...

— Life and sport in China - Second Edition • Oliver G. Ready

... houses a few people came out and stood there watching silently, and, as one felt, in a sort of despair. All night long men were marching by—and in London they were still reading that it was but a "demonstration" the Germans were engaged in— down the quay and across the pontoon bridge—the only way over the Scheldt—over to the Tete-de-Flandres and the road to Ghent. They were strung along the street next morning, boots mud-covered, mud-stained, intrenching shovels hanging to their belts, faces unshaven for weeks, just as they had come from the trenches; yet still ...

— Antwerp to Gallipoli - A Year of the War on Many Fronts--and Behind Them • Arthur Ruhl

... other side of the river to take post on the main Moscow road so as to prevent the position being turned by the advance of a portion of the French army by that route. During the night Barclay had thrown two pontoon bridges across the river in addition to the permanent bridge. At daybreak a dropping fire broke out, for both Davoust and Ney had sent bodies of troops into the suburbs, which they had entered without opposition, and these now opened an ...

— Through Russian Snows - A Story of Napoleon's Retreat from Moscow • G. A Henty

... sheds, warehouses and counting-houses. We struggled through long lines of heavy-laden country carts, and swarms of clattering droskies, all striving to force their way along with that hurry-skurry that adds to confusion and lessens speed; and we came at last to a long pontoon bridge, over which we crossed the Oka, and beyond which rises the hill-range or ravine, on the top and at the foot of which is built ...

— Russia - As Seen and Described by Famous Writers • Various

... little party that was covering the crossing, viz., a lieutenant and ten men, who came down to the river-bank and surrendered. Blair's pon-toon-train was brought up, consisting of India-rubber boats, one of which was inflated, used as a boat, and brought over the prisoners. A pontoon-bridge was at once begun, finished by night, and the troops began the passage. After dark, the whole scene was lit up with fires of pitch-pine. General Grant joined me there, and we sat on a log, looking ...

— The Memoirs of General W. T. Sherman, Complete • William T. Sherman

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