Wharf Meaning
/ˈwɔːf/Definition, CEFR level B2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
nounAn artificial landing place for ships on a riverbank or shore.
nounAny bank of a river or shore of a sea.
Sentence Examples
Once a month, there was a rave in the wharf's abandoned warehouse.
The wharf was always busy, even when the ships had yet to arrive.
The ship sounded its whistle and pulled away from the wharf.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The ship was unloading cargo at the ____, a wooden structure extending into the harbor.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The large cargo ship was docked at the ____ while the workers began to unload the many several heavy boxes today.
Word Origin & History
Etymology tree Proto-Germanic *hwerbaną Proto-West Germanic *hwerban Old English hweorfan Middle English wharf English wharf From Middle English wharf, from Old English hwearf (“heap, embankment, wharf”); related to Old English hweorfan (“to turn”), Old Saxon hwerf (whence German Werft and Warft), Dutch werf, Old High German hwarb (“a turn”), hwerban (“to turn”), Old Norse hvarf (“circle”), and Ancient Greek καρπός (karpós, “wrist”).
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"Commerce pushes its wharves into the sea."
— 1834–1874, George Bancroft, History of the United States, from the Discovery of the American Continent, volume (please specify |volume=I to X), Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown and Company [et al.], →OCLC:
"Out upon the wharfs they came, / Knight and burgher, lord and dame, / And round the prow they read her name, / The Lady of Shalott."
— 1842, Alfred Tennyson, “The Lady of Shalott”, in Poems. […], volume I, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, part IV, page 86:
"the fat weed that roots itself in ease on Lethe wharf"
— c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene v]:
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CEFR Practice Quiz
The ship was unloading cargo at the ____, a wooden structure extending into the harbor.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The large cargo ship was docked at the ____ while the workers began to unload the many several heavy boxes today.