Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A light, swift rowboat built for one person and often used in racing.
- n. A sailing barge used in East Anglia.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To transport in, or as in, a wherry.
- n. A light shallow rowboat, having seats for passengers, and plying on rivers and harbors. It resembles the dory.
- n. A light half-decked fishing-vessel used in different parts of Great Britain and Ireland.
- n. A liquor made from the pulp of crab-apples after the verjuice is expressed. Sometimes called crabwherry.
Wiktionary
- n. A light embarcation used to navigate inland waterways.
- n. A flat-bottomed vessel previously employed by British merchants, notably in East Anglia, sometimes converted into pleasure boats.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A passenger barge or lighter plying on rivers; also, a kind of light, half-decked vessel used in fishing.
- n. A long, narrow, light boat, sharp at both ends, for fast rowing or sailing; esp., a racing boat rowed by one person with sculls.
- n. A liquor made from the pulp of crab apples after the verjuice is expressed; -- sometimes called
crab wherry .
WordNet 3.0
- n. light rowboat for use in racing or for transporting goods and passengers in inland waters and harbors
- n. sailing barge used especially in East Anglia
Etymologies
- Middle English whery.
Examples
“Raleigh re-entered in a few minutes, but was silent, and pressing many an honest hand as he passed, went out to call a wherry, beckoning Amyas to follow him.”
“We saw it would be some days yet before the ship would reach the city, and therefore determined to go up in a wherry, that is a row-boat, from Gravesend.”
“And He spake to His disciples, that a small ship "-- or" wherry "--" should wait on Him because of the multitude, lest they should throng Him.”
“He was going toward the city, and the sight of the Chelsea Stairs with the waiting boats at once determined him to avoid the irritating inaction of being driven in a cab, by calling a wherry and taking an oar.”
“This erection was connected with the shore by a stage or "wherry" erected on piles.”
“Dee faces me in the wherry, his cloak drawn close against the chill, his ruddy face alight with excitement.”
Simon & Schuster: Secret History of Elizabeth Tudor, Vampire Slayer
“Half an hour perhaps to secure a wherry and make his way to Southwark.”
Simon & Schuster: Secret History of Elizabeth Tudor, Vampire Slayer
“Cecil scowls as we take our seats in the wherry; Dee fidgets; only Walsingham appears unconcerned, but I see him looking back toward the High Street and catch the calculation in his gaze.”
Simon & Schuster: Secret History of Elizabeth Tudor, Vampire Slayer
“Scarcely does the wherry bump against the water steps than I am on my feet, stepping over Dee and Walsingham before they can rise.”
Simon & Schuster: Secret History of Elizabeth Tudor, Vampire Slayer
“His lurch through silt with his chin bobbing on the surface between waves brought back memories of Daniel Defoe's piggyback ride in the 1720s when the wherry to Liverpool from the Wirral was too deeply-keeled to reach the shore.”
The Guardian: Britain's Best Views: the Mersey ferry, Liverpool
Lists
‘wherry’ hasn't been added to any lists yet.
chained_bear "...followed almost immediately by the Tamar's barge brining a score of glum but resigned and obviously competent Skates men from a ship called Skate to the larboard side and by a Plymouth wherry with two pink-faced young men, very carefully shaved, wearing identical uniforms..."
--Patrick O'Brian, The Ionian Mission, 49 Feb 10, 2008