Green’s Dictionary of Slang

the face.

1959		F. Norman Fings I i: In the old days you two wouldn’t ’ave reigned five minutes before someone slung a glass of vitriol in your boat.
1962		F. Norman Guntz 12: ‘You wannanother drink,’ I asked going scarlet in the boat from embarrassment.
1977		S. Berkoff East in Decadence and Other Plays (1985) 48: Pimples sprouting forth like buttercups on sunny days from off his greasy boat.
1983		A. Payne ‘Senior Citizen Caine’ Minder [TV script] 12: You’re a bit long in the boat, Johnny, what’s up, somebody died?
1985		S. Berkoff West in Decadence and Other Plays (1985) 91: His face / his rotten grizzly boat looked like a planet that’d been boiled.
1999		Indep. on Sun. Culture 11 July 2: Your middle-class Estuary geezer can show his boat down the pub.
2000		J.J. Connolly Layer Cake 12: Guys who’d spent their whole lives [...] going around chivvying other uptight guys with Stanley knives and sticking glasses in each other’s boats.
2002		M. Coles More Bible in Cockney 130: We Romans don’t go around handing over anyone accused of a crime before he has met his bloomin’ accusers boat to boat.
2011		J.J. Connolly Viva La Madness 75: Bridget looks like a female bodybuilder — hard boat, drag queen calves.