ferry

verb

1. 1

   To carry; transport; convey.

   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.

2. 2

   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.

   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.

3. 3

   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.

4. 4

   To pass over water in a boat or by ferry.

   They ferry over this Lethean sound / Both to and fro.

noun

1. 1

   A boat or ship used to transport people, smaller vehicles and goods from one port to another, usually on a regular schedule.

   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.

2. 2

   A place where passengers are transported across water in such a ship.

   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.

3. 3

   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.

4. 4

   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

Forms

plural

ferries

past tense

ferried

past participle

ferried

present participle

ferrying

third person singular

ferries