ferry

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   To carry; transport; convey.

   Trucks plowed through the water to ferry flood victims to safety.

2. 2
   verb

   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.

3. 3
   verb

   To pass over water in a boat or by ferry.

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

4. 4
   noun

   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

5. 5
   noun

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

   It can pass the ferry backward into light.

6. 6
   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.

7. 7
   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

8. 8
   noun

   transport by boat or aircraft

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.