Learn English – The meaning of “The boat was low to the water.”

meaningmeaning-in-context

The boat was low to the water. – What does it mean? Does it mean that only a small part of the boat was under water? Or does it mean that the boat deck was near the water level? Or something else?
Thanks a lot for your help.

Best Answer

I can see why you'd be confused here.

The boat being low to the water would look like this (excuse the poor drawing - this is the extent of my drawing abilities):

boat low to the water

This, in contrast, is a boat that is not low to the water:

boat NOT low to the water

The boat that is "low to the water" has its upper rim close to the level of the water. In other words, it has sunken in more. This could happen if the load of the boat is heavier, for example.

"Low in the water" is a much more common choice, but "low to the water" seems to be a possible options as well. I would prefer "low in the water," as "low to the water" isn't quite as common as the other usage, especially in regular conversation.

See the Google n-gram for these two phrases here.

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