ferry
Part of speech: verb
noun
Morphological type: simple
Topics: nautical
transport
Etymology: The verb is from Middle English ferien (“to carry, convey”), from Old English ferian, from Proto-West Germanic *farjan, from Proto-Germanic *farjaną, which see for cognates. This verb is the causative of Proto-Germanic *faraną (“to go, travel”), whence English fare; ultimately from the Proto-Indo-European root *per-.
The noun is from Middle English ferie (“place of crossing, ferry”), which was derived from the above verb under influence of Old Norse ferja, from Proto-Germanic *farjǭ, itself also from the verb.
False cognate of Latin ferō.
Inflected forms:
form: ferries
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: ferrying
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: ferried
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: ferried
pos: verb
tags: past
form: ferries
pos: noun
tags: plural
Senses:
gloss: To carry; transport; convey.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: Trucks plowed through the water to ferry flood victims to safety.
We ferried our stock in U-Haul trailers, and across the months, as we purchased more cowflesh from the Goat Man — meat vanishing into the ether again and again, as if into some quarkish void — we became familiar enough with Sloat and his daughter to learn that her name was Flozelle, and to visit with them about matters other than stock.
gloss: To move someone or something from one place to another, usually repeatedly.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: Being a good waiter takes more than the ability to ferry plates of food around a restaurant.
A “moving platform” scheme[…]is more technologically ambitious than maglev trains even though it relies on conventional rails. Local trains would use side-by-side rails to roll alongside intercity trains and allow passengers to switch trains by stepping through docking bays. […] This would also let high-speed trains skirt cities as moving platforms ferry passengers to and from the city centre.
gloss: To carry or transport over a contracted body of water, as a river or strait, in a boat or other floating conveyance plying between opposite shores.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
gloss: To pass over water in a boat or by ferry.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: They ferry over this Lethean sound / Both to and fro.
gloss: A boat or ship used to transport people, smaller vehicles and goods from one port to another, usually on a regular schedule.
pos: noun
examples: Near-synonym: ferryboat
Islanders normally have to queue for half an hour to get on the ferry.
To reach Mui Wo, a small town on Lantau Island, you take a ferry from central Hong Kong, and after a 30-minute ride arrive at a small square with a car park and bus stops blackened by fumes.
gloss: A place where passengers are transported across water in such a ship.
pos: noun
examples: It can pass the ferry backward into light.
to row us o'er the ferry
She walked into the waiting-room of the ferry, and up the stairs, and by a marvellous swift, little run, caught the ferry-boat that was just going out.
gloss: The service constituted by this watercraft's operation; the business (company) that operates such a service.
pos: noun
examples: In those days there was a ferry at Sleepytown. Modern roads and bridges for motor vehicles have rendered such local river ferries obsolete.
gloss: The legal right or franchise that entitles a corporate body or an individual to operate such a service: a right of ferry.
pos: noun
examples: granted a ferry to
In 1794, the county court of Mason, granted a ferry to Benjamin Sutton, who owned two lots on the front of water street.
In 1801, the same privilege was re-granted to him by the court.
In 1797, a ferry was granted to Edmund Martin, by the county court.
In 1808, a ferry was granted, by the county court, to Jacob Boon.
In 1818, a ferry was granted, by the court, to J. K. Ficklin, and in 1823, another ferry was granted, by the court, to Benjamin Baylies.
Bonds with security, were executed by the grantees respectively. The ferrys of Ficklin and Baylies have not been in operation for two or three years past. Those of Sutton, Martin and Boon, have been in operation ever since their establishment. Boon and Martin are both dead. Sutton sold his lots and ferry to Armstrong. Powers and Campbell, who attended to the ferrys granted to Boon and Martin, live in the state of Ohio. Armstrong resides in Maysville.
Related words: boat
ship
Derived words: unferried
Translations: