ferry
Americannoun
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ferries
plural
-
a commercial service with terminals and boats for transporting persons, automobiles, etc., across a river or other comparatively small body of water.
-
a ferryboat.
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a service for flying airplanes over a particular route, especially the delivery of airplanes to an overseas purchaser or base of operations.
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the legal right to ferry passengers, cargo, etc., and to charge for the service.
verb (used with object)
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ferries,
present (3rd person singular)
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ferried,
past participle, past
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ferrying
present participle
-
to carry or convey back and forth over a fixed route in a boat or plane.
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to fly (an airplane) over a particular route, especially for delivery.
verb (used without object)
-
ferries,
present (3rd person singular)
-
ferried,
past participle, past
-
ferrying
present participle
noun
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Also called: ferryboat. a vessel for transporting passengers and usually vehicles across a body of water, esp as a regular service
-
-
such a service
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( in combination )
a ferryman
-
-
a legal right to charge for transporting passengers by boat
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the act or method of delivering aircraft by flying them to their destination
verb
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to transport or go by ferry
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to deliver (an aircraft) by flying it to its destination
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(tr) to convey (passengers, goods, etc)
the guests were ferried to the church in taxis
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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ferrysimple
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ferriessimple
-
have ferriedperfect
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has ferriedperfect
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am ferryingprogressive
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are ferryingprogressive
-
is ferryingprogressive
-
have been ferryingperfect progressive
-
has been ferryingperfect progressive
Past
-
ferriedsimple
-
had ferriedperfect
-
was ferryingprogressive
-
were ferryingprogressive
-
had been ferryingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of ferry
before 1150; Middle English ferien, Old English ferian to carry; cognate with Old Norse ferja, Gothic farjan; akin to fare
Explanation
A ferry is a boat that carries people, cars, and cargo back and forth across a body of water. The Staten Island Ferry ferries commuters from Manhattan to Staten Island every ten minutes during rush hour. To ferry means to transport by ferry, or to transport in other ferry-like ways, i.e., multiple short trips. If you have an ice-skating birthday party, your dad might ferry a few van loads of kids back to your house afterward, for pizza and cake.
Vocabulary lists containing ferry
Greetings, World Traveler! — List 2
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Drowned City: Hurricane Katrina & New Orleans
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This Week in Words: Current Events Vocab for September 17–September 23, 2022
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Some are carrying extra luggage to ferry their goods home.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 14, 2026
Even popular routes, like Paros to Milos, can have only one small direct ferry that runs once a day on not-so-calm waters, depending on the time of year.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 13, 2026
A navy vessel and other ships rushed in Wednesday to rescue over 100 people from a ferry on fire off the tourist island of Bali, officials said, in the second such incident in days.
From Barron's ● Aug. 12, 2026
Surprise, surprise: Tony doesn’t get the fellowship, and instead, flees his childhood home early in the morning to catch a bus and a ferry to Provincetown.
From Salon ● Aug. 12, 2026
I kept my voice as flat as I could and said, “Down to meet the ferry, Grandma. Remember? You said I should go and help Momma bring back the groceries.”
From "Jacob Have I Loved" by Katherine Paterson
Sophie Jansen, 33, of Amsterdam, travels to Greece over five times a year and has taken close to 100 island ferries.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 13, 2026
"Now I can talk about him as the former dock worker who loved nothing more than standing on King George Dock and watching the ferries go out."
From BBC ● Jul. 27, 2026
Down by her green toes, Melanie Griffith’s Staten Island secretary Tess McGill ferries to Manhattan to type memos for important men.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 29, 2026
The problem: The bay is one of the world’s most bustling shipping areas, plied by ferries, oil tankers, cargo vessels and cruise liners.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 19, 2026
Downstream, conunoners and highborn captains alike could see the hot green death swirling toward their rafts and carracks and ferries, borne on the current of the Blackwater.
From "A Clash of Kings" by George R.R. Martin
Once in Britain, according to the New York Times, Trump was covertly ferried back to Air Force One as though he had been aboard the whole time.
From Slate ● Aug. 11, 2026
Prosecutors allege that the man, identified in a press release as Serhii K., was aboard the boat that ferried the divers to the pipeline.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 12, 2026
Voting took place across the tiny Mediterranean island nation on Saturday, and ballots were ferried overnight to the Counting Hall in Naxxar, where counting begins on Sunday morning.
From Barron's ● May 31, 2026
Firefighters ferried in personnel, equipment and pallets of supplies by boat amid gusty winds and rough seas as they raced to save sensitive wildlife, including the continent’s rarest species of pine tree.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 18, 2026
Together they ferried the pieces of the bed frame up the narrow stairway.
From "Little Fires Everywhere" by Celeste Ng
The plane took off from Ankara 20 minutes later, ferrying the president, his entourage, and the journalists who had covered his trip.
From Slate ● Aug. 11, 2026
Warships designed for tasks including anti-submarine defences "are not best used for ferrying people around", he explained.
From BBC ● Aug. 3, 2026
Obviously, clambering up and down the dangerously steep pass, ferrying goods on horseback or by mule or — for a few wacky, experimental months in the mid-1850s, Army camels — wasn’t workable.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 1, 2026
Translation was for him a ferrying across borders and a way of hearing one language estrange another.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 5, 2026
She was busy—thirteen days on ferrying and two off, in all kinds of weather, and there were so many ongoing senseless administrative formalities or blunders that a bit of pointless night training was unremarkable.
From "Code Name Verity" by Elizabeth Wein
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
