ferry
- a commercial service with terminals and boats for transporting persons, automobiles, etc., across a river or other comparatively small body of water.
- a ferryboat.
- a service for flying airplanes over a particular route, especially the delivery of airplanes to an overseas purchaser or base of operations.
- the legal right to ferry passengers, cargo, etc., and to charge for the service.
- to carry or convey back and forth over a fixed route in a boat or plane.
- to fly (an airplane) over a particular route, especially for delivery.
- to go in a ferry.
Origin of ferry
Related Words for ferries
barge, ferryboat, tote, send, shuttle, lug, carry, ship, transport, chauffeur, packet, buck, run, bear, convey, pack, schleppExamples from the Web for ferries
Contemporary Examples of ferries
The ferries run every half-hour to the Russian mainland, but they take only a few dozen cars on each trip.
I don't mean yachts or ferries, but proper working ships: cargo and container and bulk and gas and oil, the ones we no longer see.
But a new service that ferries passengers from Boston to Cape Cod has been a success – without huge government subsidies.
One evening, 29-year-old Mahmoud explained to me that he ferries money, not guns, to the Syrian people.
Are Foreign Jihadists Gaining Influence Inside the Syrian Rebel Forces?Anna Therese Day
October 16, 2012
Historical Examples of ferries
Ferries, tugs and steamers seemed to be coming at us from every side.
The HarborErnest Poole
All morning long, ferries, trolleys, trains were jammed with the race-mad throng.
Garrison's FinishW. B. M. Ferguson
The Dhīmar is also regularly employed as a worker on ferries.
He had just come off the "trail," he said, at one of the North River ferries.
The Four MillionO. Henry
He ran one of the ferries across the river to the Virginia shore.
A Portrait of Old George TownGrace Dunlop Ecker
ferry
- Also called: ferryboat a vessel for transporting passengers and usually vehicles across a body of water, esp as a regular service
- such a service
- (in combination)a ferryman
- a legal right to charge for transporting passengers by boat
- the act or method of delivering aircraft by flying them to their destination
- to transport or go by ferry
- to deliver (an aircraft) by flying it to its destination
- (tr) to convey (passengers, goods, etc)the guests were ferried to the church in taxis
Word Origin for ferry
Word Origin and History for ferries
ferry
early 15c., "a passage over a river," from Old Norse ferju- "passage across water," ultimately from the same Germanic root as ferry (v.). The modern noun (1580s) is a shortening of ferry boat (mid-15c.).
ferry
Old English ferian "to carry, convey, bring, transport," from Proto-Germanic *farjanan (cf. Old Frisian feria "carry, transport," Old Norse ferja "to pass over, to ferry," Gothic farjan "travel by boat"), from PIE *per- "going, passage." Related to fare (v.). Related: Ferried; ferries; ferrying.