1. A structure or platform of timber, masonry, iron, earth, or other material, built on the shore of a harbor,
river, canal, or the like, and usually extending from the shore to deep water, so that vessels may lie
close alongside to receive and discharge cargo, passengers, etc.; a quay; a pier.
Commerce pushes its wharves into the sea.
Bancroft.
Out upon the wharfs they came,
Knight and burgher, lord and dame.
Tennyson. The plural of this word is generally written wharves in the United States, and wharfs in England; but
many recent English writers use wharves.
2. [AS. hwearf.] The bank of a river, or the shore of the sea. [Obs.] "The fat weed that roots itself in
ease on Lethe wharf." Shak.
Wharf boat, a kind of boat moored at the bank of a river, and used for a wharf, in places where the
height of the water is so variable that a fixed wharf would be useless. [U. S.] Bartlett. — Wharf rat.
(Zoöl.) (a) The common brown rat. (b) A neglected boy who lives around the wharfs. [Slang]
Wharf
(Wharf) v. t. [imp. & p. p. Wharfed ; p. pr. & vb. n. Wharfing.]
1. To guard or secure by a firm wall of timber or stone constructed like a wharf; to furnish with a wharf
or wharfs.
2. To place upon a wharf; to bring to a wharf.
Wharfage
(Wharf"age) n.
1. The fee or duty paid for the privilege of using a wharf for loading or unloading goods; pierage, collectively; quayage.
2. A wharf or wharfs, collectively; wharfing.
Wharfing
(Wharf"ing), n.
1. Wharfs, collectively.
2. (Hydraul. Engin.) A mode of facing sea walls and embankments with planks driven as piles and
secured by ties. Knight.
Wharfinger
(Wharf"in*ger) n. [For wharfager.] A man who owns, or has the care of, a wharf.
Wharl
(Wharl Wharl"ing), n. A guttural pronunciation of the letter r; a burr. See Burr, n., 6.
A strange, uncouth wharling in their speech.
Fuller. Wharp
(Wharp) n. A kind of fine sand from the banks of the Trent, used as a polishing powder. [Eng.]
What
(What) pron., a., & adv. [AS. hwæt, neuter of hwa who; akin to OS. hwat what, OFries. hwet, D.
& LG. wat, G. was, OHG. waz, hwaz, Icel. hvat, Sw. & Dan. hvad, Goth. hwa. &radic182. See
Who.]
