(Dutch, schouw.) A large flat-bottomed boat, generally used as a ferry boat, or as a lighter for loading and unloading vessels when they cannot approach the wharf. On Lake Ontario they are sometimes rigged like a schooner or sloop, with a lee-board or sliding keel, when they make tolerably fast sailers. The word is used in Scotland. A mud-scow (Dutch, modder-schouw) is a vessel of this description, used in New York for cleaning out the docks.