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1. a long, narrow, flat-bottomed boat, rowed by an oarsman at the stern: used on the canals in Venice, Italy. 2. a passenger compartment suspended beneath a balloon or airship. Compare car (def. 3). 3. an enclosed cabin suspended from an overhead cable, used to transport passengers, as up and down a ski slope. 4. Also called gonâ²dola car`. an open railroad freight car with low sides.
Also important to traditional gondola design is the forcola, or oarlock. Unlike the circle-on-a-stick oarlock of most rowboats, the forcola is a stylized curve of cured walnut wood, bent like a boomerang and notched to offer different nooks in which to place the oar for different kinds of rowing. flat bottom allows a gondola to skim the canals only centimeters deep, and the use of a paddle (not a pole!) allows gondoliers to propel the boats in deeper water. Unfortunately, the traditional, flat-bottomed design also makes the gondola a bit tippy.