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definitions

freight

[freyt]
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SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR freight ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

verb (used with object)

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RELATED WORDS

transportation, shipping, carriage, consignment, shipment, payload, merchandise, load, lading, encumbrance, weight, wares, bulk, haul, conveyance, ballast, burden, contents, pack, fardel

Origin of freight

1350–1400; Middle English freyght (noun) < Middle Dutch or Middle Low German vrecht, variant of vracht. See fraught
Related formsfreight·less, adjectiveo·ver·freight, verb (used with object)un·freight·ed, adjective

Synonyms for freight

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR freight ON THESAURUS.COM
1. Freight, cargo, shipment refer to goods being transported from place to place. Freight is the general term for goods transported from one place to another by any means: to send freight from New York to New Orleans. Cargo is the term generally used for goods carried by ship or plane: to send a cargo to Europe. Shipment is a quantity of goods destined for a particular place, no matter how sent: a shipment of potatoes. 3. freightage, haulage. 8. charge.
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for freight

Contemporary Examples of freight

Historical Examples of freight

  • Charges for freight and passenger travel were enormous in the early days of the road.

    Prowling about Panama

    George A. Miller

  • He and his companions had broken open a freight car and had brought each a good load.

  • Freight was scarce and, had it not been for government shipments, some of the railroads would have been abandoned.

    The Sequel of Appomattox

    Walter Lynwood Fleming

  • You promised to freight my ship ere I departed, and so you shall; or I mean to load her with your dead carcasses.

    The Pocahontas-John Smith Story

    Pocahontas Wight Edmunds

  • By this route fifty dollars was saved on every ton of freight from Ottawa to the middle north.

    The Story of Isaac Brock

    Walter R. Nursey

British Dictionary definitions for freight

freight

noun

  1. commercial transport that is slower and cheaper than express
  2. the price charged for such transport
  3. goods transported by this means
  4. (as modifier)freight transport
mainly British a ship's cargo or part of it

verb (tr)

to load with goods for transport
mainly US and Canadian to convey commercially as or by freight
to load or burden; charge
Derived Formsfreightless, adjective

Word Origin for freight

C16: from Middle Dutch vrecht; related to French fret, Spanish flete, Portuguese frete
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for freight
n.

early 13c., fraght, from Middle Dutch or Middle Low German vracht, vrecht, meaning originally "cost of transport" and probably from a lost Old Frisian word, from Proto-Germanic *fra-aihtiz "absolute possession, property" (cf. Old High German freht "earnings"), from *fra-, intensive prefix, + *aik "to be master of, possess," from PIE *aik- (see owe). Meaning "transporting of goods or passengers for money" is from late 14c. Danish fragt, Swedish frakt apparently also are from Frisian. As a verb, from late 14c.

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper