skiff

A small flat-bottomed open boat with a pointed bow and square stern.

Old Applegate, in the stern, just set and looked at me, and Lord James, amidship, waved both arms and kept hollering for help. I took a couple of everlasting big strokes and managed to grab hold of the skiff's rail, close to the stern.

As Hiro is entering their neighborhood, he sees men running down the undulating pontoon bridge that serves as the main street, carrying guns and knives. The local constabulary. More men of the same description emerge from the byways and skiffs and sampans, joining them.

Any of various types of boats small enough for sailing or rowing by one person.

I went alone into a Shepherd's boat, A skiff that to a willow-tree was tied Within a rocky cave, its usual home […]

Graceful old houses stand by the edge of the Great Ouse and gaze down at the houseboats, skiffs and motor-cruisers that moor there.

To navigate in a skiff.

A light, fleeting shower of rain or snow, or gust of wind, etc.

A skiff of rain blew into the shed and the two men moved their chairs back.

A little on again, off again, skiff of rain made the road slippery in spots.

A (typically light) dusting of snow or ice (or dust, etc) (on ground, water, trees, etc).

At sunrise there was a slight skiff of ice on some water in a bucket; […]

There was a light skiff of snow on the ground. The air was filled with flying flakes, which stung his cheeks sharply. A little streak of red was beginning to show in the east, and somewhere, far away, he heard a chicken crow sleepily.