ferry

verb

1. (transitive)To carry; transport; convey.

   “Trucks plowed through the water to ferry flood victims to safety.”

   “We ferried our stock in U-Haul trailers, and across the months, as we purchased more cowflesh from the Goat Man — meat vanishing into the ether again and again, as if into some quarkish void — we became familiar enough with Sloat and his daughter to learn that her name was Flozelle, and to visit with them about matters other than stock.”

2. (transitive)To move someone or something from one place to another, usually repeatedly.

   “Being a good waiter takes more than the ability to ferry plates of food around a restaurant.”

   “A “moving platform” scheme[…]is more technologically ambitious than maglev trains even though it relies on conventional rails. Local trains would use side-by-side rails to roll alongside intercity trains and allow passengers to switch trains by stepping through docking bays. […] This would also let high-speed trains skirt cities as moving platforms ferry passengers to and from the city centre.”

3. (transitive)To carry or transport over a contracted body of water, as a river or strait, in a boat or other floating conveyance plying between opposite shores.
4. (intransitive)To pass over water in a boat or by ferry.

   “They ferry over this Lethean sound / Both to and fro.”

noun

1. A boat or ship used to transport people, smaller vehicles and goods from one port to another, usually on a regular schedule.

   “Near-synonym: ferryboat”

   “Islanders normally have to queue for half an hour to get on the ferry.”

   “To reach Mui Wo, a small town on Lantau Island, you take a ferry from central Hong Kong, and after a 30-minute ride arrive at a small square with a car park and bus stops blackened by fumes.”

2. A place where passengers are transported across water in such a ship.

   “It can pass the ferry backward into light.”

   “to row us o'er the ferry”

   “She walked into the waiting-room of the ferry, and up the stairs, and by a marvellous swift, little run, caught the ferry-boat that was just going out.”

3. The service constituted by this watercraft's operation; the business (company) that operates such a service.

   “In those days there was a ferry at Sleepytown. Modern roads and bridges for motor vehicles have rendered such local river ferries obsolete.”

4. The legal right or franchise that entitles a corporate body or an individual to operate such a service: a right of ferry.

   “granted a ferry to”

name

1. (countable, uncountable)A surname.
2. (countable, uncountable)A census-designated place in Denali Borough, Alaska, United States.
3. (countable, uncountable)A township in Oceana County, Michigan, United States, named after Thomas W. Ferry.
4. (countable, uncountable)An unincorporated community in Greene County, Ohio, United States.