noun General Slang

Boat Race

/ˈbəʊt reɪs/ · noun · slang

Cockney for face — 'boat race' rhymes with face, clipped to your 'boat'.

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Definitions

1

Used of a facial look that gives the game away.

“It was written all over his boat that he'd done it.”
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2

Clipped to 'boat', someone's expression or appearance.

“You should've seen her boat when she opened the bill.”
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3

The face. 'Boat race' rhymes with 'face', and is clipped to 'boat', dropping the rhyme.

“Look at the boat on him, miserable as sin.”
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Boat Race In A Sentence

Wipe that grin off your boat race.
He's got a boat only a mother could love.
One look at her boat and I knew the news was bad.

Origin & Usage

Late-Victorian or early-twentieth-century East End rhyming slang on 'face', borrowing the name of the famous Oxford-and-Cambridge Boat Race rowed on the Thames; event-and-place rhymes are characteristic of Cockney, within the tradition Hotten first set down in 1859.

Variants boat
Tags #cockney#rhyming#british#uk#body

People Also Ask

What does boat race mean in Cockney?

It means the face. 'Race' rhymes with 'face', and it's shortened to 'boat'.

Why 'boat race'?

It borrows the famous Thames Boat Race between Oxford and Cambridge — a well-known event that gave an easy rhyme for 'face'.

Is boat for face still used?

Yes, 'boat' for face is one of the more common surviving pieces of rhyming slang.

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