▪ I. barge, n.1
(bɑːdʒ)
Forms: 4– barge, 4–7 berge, (7 barg).
[a. OF. barge (= Pr. barga, c 1180, med.L. barga), of which the L. type might be either barga or *bārica. Diez favours the latter, taking it as a possible derivative of L. bāris, Gr. βᾶρις, a kind of boat used on the Nile, an Egyptian word (Coptic bar{iacu} a little pleasure-boat); but there is no evidence that this word was ever used in the West. As to barga see bark n.2
If barge was, as seems certain, the same as barca, bark n.2, it was originally a ship's boat, used as a lighter, etc.; in OF., 13th c., we still find ‘la barge de la nef’ (Littré): cf. senses 2–4. But, as with barca, the name was extended to a boat or small ship with sails; and this was the first use in English: see sense 1. After the introduction (by Caxton) of barque, barke from 15th c. Fr., that word took the place of barge, which, after 1600, is found in the sense of ‘ship’ only in translators or historians. The modern senses revert more nearly to that of the original barca.]
† 1. a. A small sea-going vessel with sails: used spec. for one next in size above the balinger, and generally as = Ship, vessel (in which use it is now superseded by bark.) Obs. (except when historians reproduce it in the specific sense.)
| a 1300 Cursor M. 24840 Þat ilke waw til oþir it weft, And bremli to þa bargis beft. c 1300 K. Alis. 852 Mid heore atire, schipes and barge They gan mony for to charge. c 1386 Chaucer Prol. 410 His barge ycleped was the Maudelayne. c 1400 Destr. Troy xxx. 12406 Relikes of troy, Þat he [Antenor] broght in his barge to the bare yle. a 1422 Hen. V in Ellis Orig. Lett. iii. 31 I. 72 Owr grete shippes, carrakes, barges, and balyngers. c 1440 Lonelich Grail xxxv. 112 Alle the sees..that schepis or barges inne mown go. 1568 Ld. Semple Fleming Bark, I have a little Fleming Berge. 1652 Needham tr. Selden's Mare Cl. 301 Two Ships, two Barges and two Ballingers armed and fitted for war. 1875 Stubbs Const. Hist. III. 128 (transl. Rot. Parl. an. 1442) Each ship attended by a barge of eighty men, and a balynger of forty; also four ‘spynes’ of twenty-five men. |
† b. fig. (cf. bark, ship.) Obs.
| 1526 Skelton Magnyf. 38 But yf reason be regent and ruler of your barge. c 1550 New Notbroune Mayd 166 in Hazl. E.P.P. III. 8 In Sathans barge, Emparynge his good name. a 1577 Gascoigne Wks. (1587) 181, I seemed to swim in goodlucks barge. 1663 Sir G. Mackenzie Relig. Stoic xx. (1685) 160 To stay still in the barge of the Church. |
2. A flat-bottomed freight-boat, chiefly for canal- and river-navigation, either with or without sails: in the latter case also called a lighter; in the former, as in the Thames barges, generally dandy-rigged, having one important mast.
| 1480 Caxton Chron. Eng. vii. (1520) 91 b/1 Bargees and botes and great plankes. 1494 Fabyan vii. 388 A brydge made of bargis [and] plankys to haue passed a water. 1570 Levins Manip. /31 Barge, cimba, remulcus. 1627 Capt. Smith Seaman's Gram. A ij, The Barge by graue Amocles was compos'd. 1725 De Foe Voy. round World (1840) 324 Floats, like flat-bottomed barges. 1769 Falconer Dict. Marine (1789), Barge, is also the name of a flat-bottomed vessel of burthen, for lading and discharging ships. 1842 Tennyson Lady of Shalott iii, By the margin, willow-veil'd, Slide the heavy barges trail'd. 1846 Grote Greece (1862) II. xx. 504 The merchandise was put into barges. |
† 3. vaguely, A rowing boat; esp. a ferry-boat. (Used to render L. linter.) Obs.
| 1470–85 Malory Arthur i. xxv, Go ye into yonder barge, and row your self unto the swerd. 1567 Drant Horace' Epist. i. xviii. F v, The Oste deuydes their bargies [lintres]. 1601 Holland Pliny I. 74 Vpon the riuer Alpheus, there is passage by water in barges. |
4. spec. The second boat of a man of war; a long narrow boat, generally with not less than ten oars, for the use of the chief officers.
| 1530 Palsgr. 460/1, I dare borde hym with my rowe barge. a 1618 Raleigh Apol. 5, I had taken my Barge and gone a shoare. 1769 Falconer Dict. Marine (1789) F iv, A barge properly never rows less than ten [oars]. 1773 Brownrigg in Phil. Trans. LXIV. 457 We went from the Centaur with the long-boat and barge. 1860 H. Stuart Seaman's Catech. 9 Barges are..kept in order to carry distinguished persons when embarking or disembarking. 1863 Cornh. Mag. Feb., One of the larger boats, i.e. launch, barge, or pinnace. |
5. A large vessel propelled by oars (or towed), generally much ornamented, and used on state occasions; an ornamental house-boat.
(The College ‘Barges’ at Oxford are ornamental house-boats, now permenently moored, and used as dressing- and sitting-rooms for university men on the river.)
| 1586 Cogan Haven Health i. (1612) 3 Sitting in a boate or barge which is rowed. 1606 Shakes. Ant. & Cl. ii. ii. 196 The Barge she sat in, like a burnisht Throne, Burnt on the water. 1682 Lond. Gaz. No. 1724/4 His Majesty passed by here in his barge. 1722 Lond. Gaz. No. 6107/3 The..Lord Mayor..proceeded in the City Barge. 1849 Macaulay Hist. Eng. I. 303 Who knew no more of winds and waves than could be learned in a gilded barge between Whitehall Stairs and Hampton Court. 1882 Murray Berks etc. 196 The walk by the Isis is bordered by the College barges. |
6. a. (in U.S.) ‘A double-decked passenger and freight vessel, without sails or power, and towed by a steamboat.’ Webster.
b. A large carriage. U.S.
| 1882 Howells Modern Instance xxvii. 328 Marcia watched him drive off toward the station in the hotel barge. 1903 Boston Herald 19 Aug., The visitors were conveyed in barges to the crest of High Pole hill. 1907 Springfield Weekly Republ. 21 Feb. 16 [A sleigh-ride] which required every four-horse barge in the north half of the county. |
7. Comb., chiefly attrib., as barge-builder, barge-cushion, barge-house, barge-load, barge-walk, barge-woman; and the adjs. barge-like, barge laden. See also bargeman, -master.
| 1609 Act 7 James I xviii, The..landing of every Barge⁓load..of the said Sand. 1685 Lond. Gaz. No. 2023/4 They lie now in a Barge-House..at Lambeth. 1773 Gentl. Mag. XLIII. 144 Who loll'd on barge-cushions at ease. 1850 Merivale Rom. Emp. (1865) III. xxviii. 322 His bargelike vessels thronged..the mouth of the inlet. 1864 Daily Tel. 6 Aug., A barge woman..seized the prisoner by the collar. 1880 Blackmore M. Anerley II. vii. 121 A jetty, a quay, and a barge-walk. 1960 Times 30 Apr. 9/1 A small party of Dutch soldiers was smuggled through the water⁓gate, concealed in a bargeload of peat. |
▪ II. barge, n.2
(See quot. 1908.)
| 1908 Animal Management 206 A piece of leather..running from the fore-wale beneath the after-wale [of a horse's collar] is known as the ‘barge’. 1946 N. Wymer Eng. Country Crafts v. 48 For the body he will make a leather throat-piece and stitch it..together with one edge of a piece of woollen cloth, to his barge. |
▪ III. barge, n.3 slang.
[f. barge v.2]
An argument, dispute.
| 1934 Bulletin (Sydney) 5 Dec. 36/2 The player-writer business has been causing a lot of barge in Brisbane. 1948 Punch 24 Nov. 491/3 Mr. Attlee and Mr. Churchill had a ‘barge’ on the subject of European Federation. |
▪ IV. barge, v.1
[f. barge n.1]
† 1. a. phr. to barge it: to journey by barge. Obs.
| 1599 Nashe Lent. Stuffe in Harl. Misc. VI. 151 (D.) Whole tribes of males and females trotted, bargd it thither. |
b. intr. To travel by barge.
| 1909 in Webster. 1962 N. Maxwell Witch-Doctor's Appr. ix. 111 Stretched on soft blankets in the shade of the pamacari..I was as comfortable as Cleopatra barging down the Nile. |
2. trans. To carry by barge.
| 1649 W. Blithe Eng. Improv. Impr. (1653) 88 Were there a River to Barge it [soil] up and down. 1885 Harper's Mag. May 873/2 Of coals..750,000 tons are..annually..barged. |
3. a. intr. To bump heavily into (a person), to knock roughly against; to go roughly and heavily through, into, along, about, or against (a place, etc.); also with advs. about, around. Also to barge one's way.
| 1888 Boy's Own Paper Christmas No. 56/2 Dig your heels in, old chap,..and barge into the bank! 1890 Farmer Slang I. 124/1 Barge..(Uppingham School.)—To knock against a person; to come into collision with. 1899 Daily News 10 July 9/2 Defendant denied that the cocks were fighting. They were merely ‘barging’ as it was called in Lancashire. 1904 Kipling Traffics & Discov. 318 You ought to have summoned me for trespass when I barged through your woods. 1904 ― in Windsor Mag. Jan. 234/2, I remember..the dropped jaw of the midshipman in her whaler when we barged fairly into him. 1911 C. E. W. Bean ‘Dreadnought’ of Darling xxxviii. 339 A crowd of men came barging into the hut. 1915 W. J. Locke Jaffery xvii. 232 He..barged mightily down Fleet Street. 1919 C. Orr Glorious Thing vi. 63 His first mishap was to barge into Isabel's fiancé, his second to be barged into by Isabel. 1924 Blackw. Mag. June 751/2 The camel..is an awkward and troublesome creature on a narrow road, especially if he takes fright, barging about to the danger of everybody. 1924 Chambers's Jrnl. 294/2 Pattering donkeys barge their way through the crowded alleys. 1961 Times 13 Feb. 4/2 Place kick..given for barging in the line-out. |
b. transf. and fig.
| 1923 Chambers's Jrnl. 718/2, I hadn't barged about the world then. 1928 Observer 11 Mar. 14/5 There is a sort of masterful way in which a theme is made to barge its way through its surroundings. 1930 W. S. Maugham Cakes & Ale iv. 50 He'll hate having a lot of strangers barging in on him. |
c. trans. To cause to move forcibly or heavily.
| 1903 Wodehouse Tales St. Austin's 4 There was something wonderfully entertaining in the process of ‘bargeing’ the end man off the edge of the form into space. 1923 Public Opinion 19 Jan. 61/2 Heaven knows I'm always trying to barge it at you. 1924 W. J. Locke Coming of Amos viii. 93 By degrees he edged (or barged) his huge frame to the front rank. 1927 Observer 3 Apr. 27/6 Scotland bore down in a body, and Morton barged the ball past Brown. |
▪ V. barge, v.2 slang. ? dial.
(bɑːdʒ)
[? Back-formation f. bargee, as if ‘to use the language of a bargee’.]
trans. To abuse or ‘slang’ (a person).
| a 1860 Alb. Smith Med. Student (1861) 102 Whereupon they all began to barge the master at once; one saying ‘his coffee was all snuff and chickweed.’ 1881 J. F. T. Keane Six Months in Meccah iv. 98 My informer..blaming those ‘Shaitan’ English, and barging them in choice Arabic. |