▪ I. wharf, n.1
(hwɔːf)
Pl. wharfs (hwɔːfs), wharves (hwɔːvz). Forms: 1 hwearf, wearf, hwerf, 1, 4 warf, 4 wherf(e, warffe, wharghffe, quarf, 5 qwerf, 5–7 warff, wharff(e, 5–8 wharfe, 6 quarfe, (wharthe), 7 hwarf, 7– wharf.
[Late OE. hwearf (cf. earlier poetical comp. merehwearf sea-shore), corresp. to MLG. warf, werf mole, dam, wharf, raised site protected from flooding (LG. warf), whence EFris. warf, werf, Du. werf shipyard, G. werf wharf, pier, werft dockyard. Ultimately related to wharf n.2, wharve n. and v.
‘Mr. Pickering notices this form of the plural of wharf, as peculiar to Americans. The English say wharfs. In the Colony and Province Laws of Massachusetts, Mr. Pickering says he has observed the plural wharfs (or wharfes) as late as the year 1735; but after that period the form wharves is used’ (Bartlett Dict. Amer., 1848).]
1. A substantial structure of timber, stone, etc., built along the water's edge, so that ships may lie alongside for loading and unloading.
Often with prefixed n., as fish-wharf, gun-wharf.
| 10.. Charter of Eadweard in Kemble Cod. Dipl. IV. 221 Ic wille ðat sainte Petre and ða ᵹebroðera in Westminstre habben ðat land and ðone wearf..ðe Ulf and his wif..ᵹafon. 1067 in Charter Roll 9 Edw. III, m. 18 De uno hwearfo quod est ad applicationem navium ad capud pontis illius civitatis [sc. London]. 1080–5 in H. W. C. Davis Regesta Regum Anglo-Norm. (1913) 126 Unum warf quod est ad caput pontis Londonie. c 1320 Domesday of St. Paul's (Camden) 158* An qwarvæ sive kayæ, muri sive wallæ..debite reparentur. 1320 Rolls of Parlt. I. 370/2 In shopis suis super Warfam predictam. 1397 Ibid. III. 371/1 De la novell Keye autrement appelle le Wherf [1432 Act 10 Hen. VI, c. 5 §2 Qwerf] a le cost du dit Port de Caleys. 1442 Ibid. V. 54/2 Diverse Wharves and Keyes beyng by the water sides. 1485 Cal. Pat. Rolls 6 [Keeping the] hawes and wharfes of Walton and Waybrigge. 1503–4 Act 19 Hen. VII, c. 37 §5 Too Cotages or Meses wyth Howses & Wharfes..in Stepeney. 1669 Sturmy Mariner's Mag., Pen. & Forf. 8 If any Custom-house Officer..keep any Wharfe, or hold any Hostelry, or Tavern. a 1700 Evelyn Diary 17 Aug. 1654, A wharfe of hewn stone, which makes the river appeare very neate. 1815 J. Smith Panorama Sci. & Art I. 241 Its [sc. Blackfriars bridge] length, from wharf to wharf, is about nine hundred and ninety-five feet. 1834 Dickens Sk. Boz, Steam Excurs., The bell at London⁓bridge Wharf rang; and a Margate boat was just starting. 1878 Nares Polar Sea I. i. 1 H.M. ships ‘Alert’ and ‘Discovery’ cast off from the dockyard wharf, Portsmouth. 1882 J. Rhys Celtic Brit. ii. 46 The wharfs for the tin-barges were erected. |
† 2. a. An embankment, mole, or dam.
Obs.| 1038 Charter of Harold in Thorpe Charters 341 Þa ᵹyrnde he þæt he moste macian foran gen Mildryþe æker ænne hwerf wið þon wodan to werianne. 1567 Golding Ovid's Met. xv. 196 b, Untill that hee the bowwing wharf besyde the hauen tooke [orig. Tendit ad incurvo munitos aggere portus]. 1600 Holland Livy xl. li. 1091 Lepidus..raised the great causey or wharfe at Tarracina. 1601 ― Pliny vi. xxviii. I. 140 The Apamians..set open the sluces, and breake up the wharfes and bankes that keepe these two rivers asunder. |
† b. A terrace or raised platform.
Obs.| 1533 in W. H. St. John Hope Windsor Castle (1913) I. 249 The makyng off a new wharff upon the north syde of the said Castell. 1535 Ibid. 262 The buttresses made on the bakesyde of the new Wharffe. |
c. † The bank of a river (
obs.); also, a gravel or sandbank.
| 1602 Shakes. Ham. i. v. 33 The fat weede That rots it selfe in ease, on Lethe Wharfe. 1606 ― Ant. & Cl. ii. ii. 218 From the Barge A strange inuisible perfume, hits the sense Of the adiacent Wharfes. 1867 Smyth Sailor's Word-bk., Wharf, in hydrography, is a scar, a rocky or gravelly concretion, or frequently a sandbank,..where the tides throw up dangerous ripples and overfalls. |
† d. A large raft.
Obs. rare.
| 1662 J. Bargrave Pope Alex. VII (1867) 119 They were brought upon warffs or raffts of many pines and firs. |
e. A place raised or otherwise marked out on which stuff is deposited for subsequent removal to another place.
| 1725 in Dig. Proc. Crt.-leet Savoy (1789) 22 For making a dung wharfe or lay stall at the lower end of Fountain Court. |
3. attrib. and
Comb., as
wharf-end,
wharf-frontage,
wharf-head,
wharf-holder,
wharf-house,
wharf-labourer,
wharf-land,
wharf-man,
wharf-master,
wharf-measure,
wharf-property,
wharf-shed,
wharf-side,
wharf-stead,
wharf-wall;
wharf-boat, (
a)
U.S. a boat supporting a platform and moored at a bank, used as a wharf; (
b) a boat employed about a wharf;
wharf crane, a crane fixed in position on a wharf (see
quot. 1968); a wharf-side crane;
† wharf-gelt, ? an impost levied on shipping for the use of a wharf;
wharf-lumper Austral. [
lumper n. 1 a], a wharf-labourer;
wharf-rat, (
a) the common brown rat,
Mus decumanus, which infests wharfs; (
b) a man or boy who loafs about wharfs, often with the intention of stealing (
slang).
| 1849 Lyell 2nd Visit U.S. II. 227 In the *wharf-boat..I expected to find a bed for the first night. 1860 Bartlett Dict. Amer. s.v., On the Western rivers the height of the water is so variable that a fixed wharf would be useless. In its place is used a rectangular float... It is generally aground on the shore side, and is entered by a plank or movable platform. This is a wharf-boat. 1878 N. Amer. Rev. CXXVII. 225 She was used as a ‘wharf-boat’ or store-ship. |
| 1893 K. P. Dahlstrom tr. Weisbach & Herrmann's Mech. Hoisting Machinery vi. 243 The ordinary *wharf crane with capacity to lift 100 to 200 cwt. 1903 J. Horner Elem. Treat. Hoisting Machinery xvii. 195 There is a class of fixed jib cranes which have no other name than that which designates the nature of their service, fixed wharf cranes... But by the term wharf crane, a broad type only is understood. 1968 Gloss. Terms Materials Handling (B.S.I.) iv. 14 Dockside or wharf crane, a jib crane designed for loading and unloading ships, consisting of a full or semi-portal, fixed or rail mounted, supporting a revolving superstructure and jib. |
| 1897 Kipling Capt. Cour. iv. 95 Her rigging flew knotted and tangled like weed at a *wharf-end. |
| Ibid. x. 216 Statistics of boats, gear, *wharf-frontage, capital invested,..and profits. |
| 1505 Cal. Pat. Rolls Hen. VII, 404 [Without paying any] sandegelt, *wharfgelt. |
| 1800 Asiat. Ann. Reg., Chron. 35/1 All goods whatsoever, that are not disembarked at the *Wharf Head. |
| 1883 Law Rep. 11 Q.B. Div. 486 Whether the persons for whom the weighing was done were *wharfholders or not. |
| 1698 in Hertford Sess. Rolls (1905) I. 428 [Encroaching upon the river Lea] by building a *wharfe house..thereon. |
| 1890 Evening Post (Wellington, N.Z.) 11 July 2 A *wharf-labourer who stands charged with the theft of an oil skin coat... The accused was at work discharging coal on the Mawhera. a 1948 L. G. D. Acland Early Canterbury Runs (1951) xi. 321 Trouble with wharf labourers..kept them six weeks in Auckland. |
| 1895 Daily Tel. 5 Aug. 5/3 Converting a piece of *wharfland on the Isle of Dogs into a public pleasure-ground. |
| 1906 E. Dyson Fact'ry 'Ands iii. 39 Three weeks..later, Sarah was married to a *wharf-lumper..and Fuzzy's dream of love was over. 1951 V. Palmer in Landfall V. 292 In Victoria..it was read by nearly everybody, from wharflumpers to politicians. |
| 1848 Mill Pol. Econ. i. ii. §6 Bargemen, sailors, *wharfmen. |
| a 1618 Raleigh in Rem. (1661) 179 From any Port Town..the Bridge-master or the *Wharfmaster..will deliver a true Note of the number of Lasts of Herrings brought to their Wharfes. 1836 J. M. Peck New Guide for Emigrants to West xii. 320 The following, from the register of a wharf master, will exhibit the commerce for 1835. 1968 M. M. Sibley Port of Houston iii. 59 Wharfmaster Daniel G. Wheeler reported that in that year [sc. 1844] 6.892 bales passed over the Houston wharves. |
| 1821 Acc. Peculat. Coal Trade 13 All coals sent out, *wharf measure. |
| 1877 Burroughs Taxation 140 The whole *wharf property..was liable to be taxed. |
| 1823 J. F. Cooper Pilot ii. i. 13 To burrow like a rabbit, or jump from hole to hole, like a *wharf-rat. 1836 Franklin Repository (Chambersburg, Pa.) 4 Oct. 1/3 I've an idea, my man, that you are one of the wharf rats; and, if so, the less lip you give me the better. 1860 Bartlett Dict. Amer., Wharf-Rats. 1. Rats that inhabit wharves. 2. Thieves that infest the wharves of seaport towns. 1863 Hawthorne Our Old Home, Boston I. 269 Lolling on long-boats,..as sailors and old wharf rats are accustomed to do. |
| 1952 R. Finlayson Schooner came to Atia xi. 61 In the..market place by the *wharfshed. |
| 1842 Dickens Amer. Notes xi, A crowd of high-pressure steam⁓boats, clustered together by a *wharf-side. 1891 Meredith One of our Conq. xxv, A hanged heavy look, suggestive of a wharfside crane. |
| 1828 Craven Gloss., *Wharf-steead, a ford in a river. In Ray, it is warstead, q.d. waterstead. |
| 1831–3 in Encycl. Metrop. (1845) VIII. 604/1 A *wharf wall..at the East end of His Majesty's dock-yard, Woolwich. |
▪ II. † wharf, n.2 Obs. [OE. hwearf (poet., alliterating on w), corresp. to OS. hwarf crowd, MLG. warf, werf circle, assembly sitting in a circle, court of justice, OHG. warb (MHG. warp, warf): cf. prec.] A crowd, assembly.
In the first
quot. from Laȝamon's
Brut perh. = change (
OE. hwearf:
cf. OFris. hwarf,
werf,
OHG. warba,
MHG. warbe (with numerals) time(s, (M)
LG. werf,
warf, (
-ve) turn, time;
cf. wharve v.).
| a 1000 Guthlac 234 Beorᵹ ymbstodan hwearfum wræcmæcgas. c 1205 Lay. 2070 Þus is þis eitlond igon from honde to hond, þet alle þa burhȝes þe Brutus iwrohte..beoð swiðe afelled þurh warf of þon folke. Ibid. 17485 Þider com Aurilie..& al his folc mid him. Whiten-sunendæie he þer wærf makede [Wace Altre gent assés assambla Feste tint]. |
▪ III. wharf, v. (
hwɔːf)
Also 7
warfe.
[f. wharf n.1] † 1. trans. To strengthen or make firm (
e.g. the bank of a river) with a wall of timber or stone.
Obs.| 1569 Surrey & Kent Sewers Comm. (1909) 6 To..cope and wharfe xxiiijte roddes of the walle. 1615 Crt.-roll of Gt. Waltham Manor, Essex (MS.), Preceptum est..sufficienter cumulare (Anglicè, to wharfe) fossatum suum. 1618 in F. Devon Issues Exch. (1836) 335 For three bridges to go over the sewers, and for wharfing the sides with strong timber. 1674 J. Josselyn Two Voy. New-Eng. 162 The houses are for the most part raised on the Sea-banks and wharfed out with great industry and cost. a 1700 Evelyn Diary 6 Mar. 1667, I proposed to my Lo. Chancellor Monsieur Kiviet's undertaking to warfe the whole river of Thames, or Key, from the Temple to the Tower..with brick. 1724 [see wharfing 2]. 1793 R. Mylne Rep. Thames 37 The Road ought to be raised and wharfed. |
| transf. 1628 Wither Brit. Rememb. i. 192 Is this that Iland, which our love..Did wharfe about (within her watry Dike) With mighty Rocks, and Cliffes? |
2. To bring to shore or discharge at a wharf.
| 1629 Wadsworth Pilgr. viii. 87 A Master of an English Barke..who had wharft ouer a hundred French. 1694 Lond. Gaz. No. 3024/4 Goods will be Wharfed here at easier Rates than heretofore. 1798 in Spirit Publ. Jrnls. (1799) II. 351 Every species of property (whether landed, funded, wharfed, warehoused, or shipped). 1803 W. Tatham Rep. Imped. Thames 73 Nor would it be a very difficult matter to dock or wharf the whole of their commerce. |
3. To accommodate (vessels) at a wharf.
| 1902 Times 1 Nov. 5/6 A large stone basin, capable of wharfing a dozen battleships of the first class. |
4. intr. To come to wharf.
| 1891 Voice (N.Y.) 1 Jan., When the Mayflower wharfed at Plymouth Rock. 1901 Daily Chron. 4 June 3/4 The Royal Squadron wharfed..at half-past seven. |