Forms: 5 ferrye, 5–6 fery(e, 6 ferrie, 5– ferry. [f. the vb.; its late appearance seems to exclude the supposition that it is a. ON. ferja of equivalent formation. Cf. Du. veer, MHG. vere, ver, mod.G. fähre in same sense.]
† 1. A passage or crossing. Obs.
c. 1425. Wyntoun, Cron., VIII. xl. 143. At þe Ferry of þe Hill þai mete.
2. esp. A passage or place where boats pass over a river, etc. to transport passengers and goods.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 156/2. Fery over a watyr.
c. 1470. Henry the Minstrel, Wallace, I. 285. Besyd Landoris the ferrye our thai past.
1535. Coverdale, Judg. iii. 28. They folowed him, & wanne ye ferye of Iordane.
1538. Leland, Itin., I. 31. There be 4 … Placis namid as ferys apon the Water of Lindis.
1611. Coryat, Crudities, 19. The ferry where we were transported into the Ile of France, called Saint Liew.
1775. Wyndham, Tour Wales, 42. Just above the ferry is the seat of Mr. Vernon.
1825. J. Neal, Brother Jonathan, II. 95. Then we blow ’um out, agin, at the tops o’ the hills; or when we come nigh the taverns; or baitin’ places, or post offices, or ferries—or bridges—or—so, ye see, we keep on, blowin’ it, all the time, now.
3. Provision for the conveyance of passengers, etc. by boat from one shore to the other.
c. 1489. Caxton, Blanchardyn and Eglantine, viii. 33. The knight of the Ferry attended to receiue him.
1700. Mod. Law Reports, III. 294. The Defendant had petitioned the king to destroy the Ferry.
1847. Mrs. A. Kerr, trans. Ranke’s History of Servia, x. 193. There is a letter extant, in which he earnestly warns Peter Dobrinjaz not to interfere with the ferry of Poscharevaz.
1892. S. R. Gardiner, Student’s Hist. Eng., 20. An old track raised above the marsh crossed the river by a ford at Lambeth, but, as London grew in importance, a ferry was established where London Bridge now stands, and the Romans, in course of time, superseded the ferry by a bridge.
fig. 1850. Carlyle, Latter-d. Pamph., v. 32. We have all of us our ferries in this world.
† b. = FERRY-BOAT. Obs.
1590. Spenser, F. Q., II. vi. 19.
| Him needed not long call; shee soone to hand | |
| Her ferry brought, where him she byding fond. |
1596. Shaks., Merch. V., III. iv. 53.
| Bring them I pray thee with imagin’d speed | |
| Vnto the Tranect, to the common Ferrie | |
| Which trades to Venice. |
1701. Lond. Gaz., No. 3722/1. The French had sunk divers Ferries and other Boats in the River.
1798. R. P., Tour in Wales, 24 (MS.). We here engaged a ferry over the Wye.
4. Law. The right of ferrying men and animals across a river, etc., and of levying toll for so doing.
1721. Termes de la Ley, 344. Ferry, is a Liberty by Prescription, or the Kings Grant.
1708. Shower, Reports, 257. If a Ferry were granted at this Day, he that accepts such Grant, is bound to keep a Boat for the Publick Good.
1843. Meeson & Welsby, Exchequer Reports, X. 161. The defendants … were possessed of a certain ferry across … the River Mersey.
1862. Law Reports, XXXI. Common Pl. 247. The plaintiffs are the lessees of an ancient ferry.
5. attrib. and Comb. a. Chiefly attributive, as ferry-boy, -craft, -place, -pole, -receipts, service, -warden, -way.
1812. Examiner, 21 Dec., 816/2. James Dean, a *ferry-boy.
c. 1470. Henry the Minstrel, Wallace, IX. 1306. For *fery craft na fraucht he thocht to crawe.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 156/2. *Fery place.
1665. Pepys, Diary (1879), III. 193. Mr. Carteret and I to the ferry-place at Greenwich.
1806. Sporting Mag., XXVII. Jan., 173/1. Such was my morning song as I left the ferry-place at Portsea, for the opposite shore.
a. 1661. Holyday, Juvenal, 23.
| That there are Ghosts and Subterraneous caves, | |
| A *ferry-poal, and Frogs in Stygian waves. |
1858. J. B. Norton, Topics, 186. The surplus *ferry receipts and ghe Noozool are also resources given up by the State.
1892. Pall Mall G., 23 Feb., 3/3. It is proposed to build a pier here, and … to establish a *ferry service.
1576. Act 18 Eliz., c. 10 § 10. The said *Ferry-warden.
1884. Harper’s Mag., VIII., Oct., 809/1. In the year 1848, after a bridge had been built across the river, the town voted to discontinue the *ferryway and the ferry.
b. Special comb., as ferry-bridge (see quot.); ferry-flat, U.S. a flat boat used for crossing (and sometimes descending) rivers; ferry-house, the residence of a ferry-man, also attrib.; † ferry-look (see quot.); ferry-louper, one who has crossed from the mainland, Orkn.; ferry-master, U.S. a person in charge of a ferry; also, one who collects the tolls at a ferry (Cent. Dict.); ferry-nab (see quot.); ferry-railway (see quot.). Also FERRY-BOAT, FERRY-MAN.
1874. Knight, Dict. Mech., *Ferry-bridge. A form of ferry-boat in which the railway-train moves on to the elevated deck, is transported across the water and then lands upon the other side.
1828. Flint, Mississippi Valley, I. 230. The *ferry flat is a scow-boat.
1838. Dickens, O. Twist, xxi. As they passed Sunbury Church, the clock strunk seven. There was a light in the *ferry-house window opposite; which streamed across the road, and threw into more sombre shadow a dark yew-tree with graves beneath it.
1862. H. Marryat, Year in Sweden, II. 329. A ferryhouse stretches out like a sickle in the blue sea.
1769. De Foe’s Tour Gt. Brit., I. 153. The Keeper of this Ferry … has another Perquisite added; which is to dredge for Oysters within the Compass of his *Ferry-look, which extends one Tow’s Length (as they term it); i. e. 60 Fathoms, on each Side of the Castle.
1868. D. Gorrie, Summ. & Wint. Orkneys, iv. 143. This misguided man was a *Ferry-Louper (the name formerly given to strangers from the south).
1883. All Year Round, 19 May, 465. Shouts [came] for a boat, as if from the *ferry-nab, or point, on the other side.
1847. Knight, Dict. Mech., *Ferry-railway, one whose track is on the bottom of the watercourse and whose carriage has an elevated deck which supports the train.
