waterboard

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noun

A board set up to windward in a boat, to keep out water.

“We waterboarded the suspect, but he refused to confess.”

OriginMiddle English water boarde →
Scrabble 16
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Meanings

nounwaterboard (plural waterboards)

plural waterboards

  1. A board set up to windward in a boat, to keep out water.
  2. A public commission charged with overseeing water quality in a particular area.

    The waterboard argued that the quality of the water was good […]

    2005, Ruth M. Mourik, Did Water Kill the Cows?, page 167
verbwaterboard (third-person singular simple present waterboards, present participle waterboarding, simple past and past participle waterboarded)

present singular third person waterboards · participle present waterboarding · participle past waterboarded · past waterboarded

  1. transitiveTo subject to waterboarding, to pour water over a cloth covering the face and breathing passages of an immobilized captive.

    We waterboarded the suspect, but he refused to confess.

Origin

  1. Middle Englishwater boarde
  2. Englishwaterboard

From Middle English water boarde, waterbord, equivalent to water + board. Compare West Frisian wetterboard (“waterboard”), Dutch waterbord (“waterboard”), German Wassertafel (“waterboard”), Danish vandbræt (“waterboard”), Swedish vattenbräda (“waterboard”), Icelandic vatnsbretti (“waterboard”).

More words from Middle English

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

Chinese Mandarin 水刑
  • 水刑 (shuǐxíng)to subject to waterboarding
Dutch waterboarden
  • waterboardento subject to waterboarding
Spanish torturar a lo submarino, hacer el submarino
  • torturar a lo submarinoto subject to waterboarding
  • hacer el submarinoto subject to waterboarding
  • hacer waterboarding (wáterbordin)to subject to waterboarding
  • waterbordearto subject to waterboarding
  • submarinearto subject to waterboarding
Swedish skendränka
  • skendränkato subject to waterboarding

Rhymes & wordplay

Anagrams

Broadwater
Cite this entry
APA

waterboard. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/waterboard

MLA

“waterboard.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/waterboard. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “waterboard,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/waterboard.

Source: waterboard on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.