wharf

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a platform built along or out from a shore where ships load, unload, or moor

   The cargo vessel remained beside the wharf until the fog lifted.

2. 2
   verb

   to bring, moor, store, load, or unload a vessel or goods at a wharf

   The crew wharfed the vessel before unloading its timber.

From Middle English wharf and Old English hwearf, "bank, embankment, wharf," related to Old English hweorfan, "to turn." Cognates include Dutch werf and German Werft. The exact semantic route is uncertain, but the word has denoted a constructed landing place since medieval English.

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