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wharves

[hwawrvz, wawrvz]

Origin

noun

a plural of wharf.

Dictionary.com Unabridged

noun

a structure built on the shore of or projecting into a harbor, stream, etc., so that vessels may be moored alongside to load or unload or to lie at rest; quay; pier.

Obsolete.

a riverbank.

the shore of the sea.

verb (used with object)

to provide with a wharf or wharves.

to place or store on a wharf: The schedule allowed little time to wharf the cargo.

to accommodate at or bring to a wharf: The new structure will wharf several vessels.

verb (used without object)

to tie up at a wharf; dock: The ship wharfed in the early morning.

Origin:
before 1050; Middle English (noun); Old English hwearf embankment; cognate with Middle Low German warf; akin to German Werf pier

Can be confused: dock, harbor, pier, wharf (see synonym note at harbor).

noun

Spinning. a wheel or round piece of wood on a spindle, serving as a flywheel or as a pulley.

Origin:
before 1000; Middle English wherve, Old English hweorfa; derivative of hwerfan to revolve

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Link To wharves

Etymonline

Word Origin & History

wharf

late O.E. hwearf "shore, bank where ships can tie up," earlier "dam, embankment," from P.Gmc. *khwarfaz (cf. M.L.G. werf "mole, dam, wharf," Ger. Werft "shipyard, dockyard"); related to O.E. hwearfian "to turn," perhaps in a sense implying "busy activity," from PIE base *kwerp- "to turn, revolve" (cf.

EXPAND

O.N. hverfa "to turn round," Ger. werben "to enlist, solicit, court, woo," Goth. hvairban "to wander," Gk. kartos "wrist," Skt. surpam "winnowing fan"). Wharf rat "person who hangs around docks" is recorded from 1836.

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Matching Quote

"From an old ruined fort on Staten Island, I have loved to watch all day some vessel whose name I had read in the morning through the telegraph glass, when she first came upon the coast, and her hull heaved up and glistened in the sun, from the moment when the pilot and most adventurous news-boats met her, past the Hook, and up the narrow channel of the wide bay, till she was boarded by the health officer, and took her station at quarantine, or held on her unquestioned course to the wharves of New York. It was interesting, too, to watch the less adventurous newsman, who made his assault as the vessel swept through the Narrows, defying plague and quarantine law, and, fastening his little cockboat to her huge side, clambered up and disappeared in the cabin. And then I could imagine what momentous news was being imparted by the captain, which no American ear had ever heard, that Asia, Africa, Europe—were all sunk; for which at length he pays the price, and is seen descending the ship's side with his bundle of newspapers,... to dispose of his wares to the highest bidder, and we shall ere long read something startling,—"By the latest arrival,"M"by the good ship—M.""

-Henry David Thoreau