barge

American  

[bahrj] / bɑrdʒ /

noun

1. a capacious, flat-bottomed vessel, usually intended to be pushed or towed, for transporting freight or passengers; lighter.

2. a vessel of state used in pageants.

   elegantly decorated barges on the Grand Canal in Venice.

3. Navy. a boat reserved for a flag officer.

4. a boat that is heavier and wider than a shell, often used in racing as a training boat.

5. New England (chiefly Older Use). a large, horse-drawn coach or, sometimes, a bus.

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verb (used without object)

barged, barging

1. to move clumsily; bump into things; collide.

   to barge through a crowd.

2. to move in the slow, heavy manner of a barge.

verb (used with object)

barged, barging

1. to carry or transport by barge.

   Coal and ore had been barged down the Ohio to the Mississippi.

verb phrase

1. barge into

   1. Also barge in on. to force oneself upon, especially rudely; interfere in.

      to barge into a conversation.

   2. to bump into; collide with.

      He started to run away and barged into a passer-by.

2. barge in to intrude, especially rudely.

   I hated to barge in without an invitation.

barge British  

/ bɑːdʒ /

noun

1. a vessel, usually flat-bottomed and with or without its own power, used for transporting freight, esp on canals

2. a vessel, often decorated, used in pageants, for state occasions, etc

3. navy a boat allocated to a flag officer, used esp for ceremonial occasions and often carried on board his flagship

4. humorous any vessel, esp an old or clumsy one

5. informal a heavy or cumbersome surfboard

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verb

1. informal to bump (into)

2. informal (tr) to push (someone or one's way) violently

3. informal (intr; foll by into or in) to interrupt rudely or clumsily

   to barge into a conversation

4. (tr) sailing to bear down on (another boat or boats) at the start of a race

5. (tr) to transport by barge

6. informal (intr) to move slowly or clumsily

Etymology

Origin of barge

1250–1300; Middle English < Middle French, perhaps < Latin *bārica; bark ³

Example Sentences

As the journalists interacted with the migrants, uniformed police barged in and detained the lawyer and four journalists.

From The Wall Street Journal

When she is at prayer in their hotel room, he barges in to ask about a misplaced item.

From The Wall Street Journal

In the film, Huppert's countess character returns to life in a scarlet red funeral barge sailing into in the Seegrotte, an underground Viennese lake popular with tourists.

From Barron's

In La Verne: In a scene filmed at La Verne United Methodist Church, Benjamin Braddock, played by Dustin Hoffman, barges into a church and interrupts a wedding, screaming, “Elaine, Elaine,” in “The Graduate.”

From The Wall Street Journal

“Comfort” is one of 2020’s defining terms, along with “horror,” “unprecedented,” “anxiety,” “insomnia” and a barge’s worth of negative words that speak to the tire yard fire that is the preceding 12 months.

From Salon

Related Words

• raft