ferry
/ˈfɛɹi/ verb, noun, proper noun
Forms ferries ferrying ferried Ferrys Farry
- verb (transitive) To carry; transport; convey. “Trucks plowed through the water to ferry flood victims to safety.”
- verb (transitive) To move someone or something from one place to another, usually repeatedly. “Being a good waiter takes more than the ability to ferry plates of food around a restaurant.”
- verb (transitive) 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.
- verb (intransitive) To pass over water in a boat or by ferry.
- noun (nautical) A boat or ship used to transport people, smaller vehicles and goods from one port to another, usually on a regular schedule. “Islanders normally have to queue for half an hour to get on the ferry.”
- noun A place where passengers are transported across water in such a ship.
- noun The service constituted by this watercraft's operation; the business (company) that operates such a service. “In those days there was a ferry at Sleepytown. Modern roads and bridges for motor vehicles have rendered such local river ferries obsolete.”
- noun The legal right or franchise that entitles a corporate body or an individual to operate such a service: a right of ferry. “granted a ferry to”
- proper noun A surname.
- proper noun A census-designated place in Denali Borough, Alaska, United States.
- proper noun A township in Oceana County, Michigan, United States, named after Thomas W. Ferry.
- proper noun An unincorporated community in Greene County, Ohio, United States.
Synonyms
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.
* A reduced Anglicized form of Irish Ó Fearadhaigh (“descendant of Fearadhach”), a personal name probably derived from an adjective derivative of fear (“man”).
* A metonymic occupational surname for a ferryman or a topographic surname for someone who lived by a ferry crossing, from Middle English feri (“ferry”).
Webster’s 1913
- verb To carry or transport over a river, strait, or other narrow water, in a boat.
- verb To pass over water in a boat or by a ferry.
- noun A place where persons or things are carried across a river, arm of the sea, etc., in a ferryboat.
- noun A vessel in which passengers and goods are conveyed over narrow waters; a ferryboat; a wherry.
Etymology [OE. ferien to convey, AS. ferian, from faran to go; akin to Icel. ferja to ferry, Goth. farjan to sail. See Fare.]
Etymology [OE. feri; akin to Icel. ferja, Sw. färja, Dan. færge, G. fähre. See Ferry, v. t.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “ferry”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details