A dictionary of Confusable Phrases: More Than 10,000 Idioms and Collocations

boarding home • boarding house
boarding home —
1
. a home for foster children: Jacqueline
was placed in a boarding home and then adopted by a couple
from Plymouth. 2. a private house that provides board and
lodging: Two women take up residence at a boarding home
that had previously been an all-male residence.
boarding house — = boarding home 2: She had some skill in
the matter of keeping a boarding house and her future might
indeed lie in that direction.
boat man • bumboat man
boat man —
1
. a man who lends out small boats or rows one
for pay: There he found a solitary boatman, whom he hailed,
and was soon seated in his kayak. 2. a water-bug (Notonecta
glauca), whose body resembles a boat: The boatman dives
under the water, occasionally coming to the surface for a sup-
ply of air.
Note: 
The expression does not correlate in meaning with the
phrase boat person—(pl. boat people) a refugee who attempts to
flee his country by putting out to sea in a small boat: There’s
nothing wrong with being a boat person. The boat saved my
life.
bumboat man —(pl. bumboat people) a person in a boat sell-
ing small merchandise to ships lying at a distance from the
shore: A bumboat man sold him a dodgy camera without film
on his first trip through the Suez Canal.
boat people • river people
boat people —refugees who attempt to flee their country by
putting out to sea in a small boat: Most people were never
aware that a great number of the boat people died on the
ocean.
river people —(Austral.) the Barkindji (an Aboriginal nation)
who lived along the Darling River in western New South
Wales: The riverboat trade began around 
1
853, at which time
the lifestyles of the river people were disturbed irreversibly.