wharf
nounverbattested in dialogue
- United Kingdom//ˈwɔːf//
- United States//ˈwɔɹf//
- //ˈʍɔɹf//
An artificial landing place for ships on a riverbank or shore.
noun
- 1
An artificial landing place for ships on a riverbank or shore.
Commerce pushes its wharves into the sea.
Out upon the wharfs they came, / Knight and burgher, lord and dame, / And round the prow they read her name, / The Lady of Shalott.
- 2
obsoleteAny bank of a river or shore of a sea.
the fat weed that roots itself in ease on Lethe wharf
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Germanic *hwerbaną Proto-West Germanic *hwerban Old English hweorfan Middle English wharf English wharf From Middle English wharf, from Old English hwearf (“heap, embankment, wharf”); related to Old English hweorfan (“to turn”), Old Saxon hwerf (whence German Werft and Warft), Dutch werf, Old High German hwarb (“a turn”), hwerban (“to turn”), Old Norse hvarf (“circle”), and Ancient Greek καρπός (karpós, “wrist”).
verb
- 1
To secure by a wharf.
- 2
To place on a wharf.
Forms
- plural
- wharves, wharfs
- past tense
- wharfed
- past participle
- wharfed
- present participle
- wharfing
- third person singular
- wharfs
wharf · An artificial landing place for ships on a riverbank or shore.
what · Which, especially which of an open-ended set of possibilities.what-what · Used to add emphasis to, and to seek agreement with, a…whatever · A thing or person whose actual name is unknown or forgotten.