WHARF • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Wharf

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/wɔrf/ /hwɔrf/ Listen

noun

Wharf n. (pl. wharfs or wharves)

A structure or platform of timber, masonry, iron, earth, or other material, built on the shore of a harbor, river, canal, or the like, and usually extending from the shore to deep water, so that vessels may lie close alongside to receive and discharge cargo, passengers, etc.; a quay; a pier. "Commerce pushes its wharves into the sea." "Out upon the wharfs they came, Knight and burgher, lord and dame." Note: The plural of this word is generally written wharves in the United States, and wharfs in England; but many recent English writers use wharves.

The bank of a river, or the shore of the sea. (Obs.) "The fat weed that roots itself in ease on Lethe wharf."

Wharf boat, a kind of boat moored at the bank of a river, and used for a wharf, in places where the height of the water is so variable that a fixed wharf would be useless. (U. S.)

Wharf rat. (Zool.)

(a)

The common brown rat.

(b)

A neglected boy who lives around the wharfs. (Slang)

verb

Wharf v. t. (past & past part. wharfed; pres. part. wharfing)

To guard or secure by a firm wall of timber or stone constructed like a wharf; to furnish with a wharf or wharfs.

To place upon a wharf; to bring to a wharf.

See images of 'Wharf'

Etymology of 'Wharf'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Wharf" Quotes from Famous Books

... as I was going to visit my old aunt yesterday, who lives on the wharf at Westminster, I met him riding, and he called out to me, saying that he had a gift for you and one ...

— Fair Margaret • H. Rider Haggard

... again her gratitude to them for their exceeding kindness to her, and promised to call upon them very soon, then bidding them an affectionate good-by she left the wharf with her lover. ...

— True Love's Reward • Mrs. Georgie Sheldon

... of the factory, in the smelting furnace, and ascends in the soft twilight from the rich furrows of her incomparable fields; while the salt sea billows, as they rock her shipping, and dash against pier and wharf, add their exultant voices in prophecy of still ...

— Historic Papers on the Causes of the Civil War • Mrs. Eugenia Dunlap Potts

... Daniel Webster of the family. The boy has a robust, muscular frame, great physical vigor and enterprise, a brain bright and active in all that may be acquired through the bodily senses, but which is dull and confused and wandering when put to abstract book-knowledge. He knows every ship at the wharf, her build, tonnage, and sailing qualities; he knows every railroad-engine, its power, speed, and hours of coming and going; he is always busy, sawing, hammering, planing, digging, driving, making bargains, with his head full of plans, all relating to something outward and physical. ...

— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 15, No. 92, June, 1865 • Various

... be pleasant, so they in company with Uncle Edward and his wife started for Mount Holyoke, a distance of three miles. A short drive brought them to the Hokanum ferry where they were to cross the Connecticut. As they drove upon what seemed to Reuben a wharf, he, accustomed only to the Boston ferry-boats, remarked that the boat was not in yet. And it was not until a moment later when he found himself moving away from the land that he discovered that he was on the boat itself! The way in which they were being borne ...

— The Bay State Monthly, Vol. II, No. 6, March, 1885 - A Massachusetts Magazine • Various

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