Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A light, swift rowboat built for one person and often used in racing.
  • noun A sailing boat with a gaff rig, traditionally used to haul cargo in East Anglia.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A liquor made from the pulp of crab-apples after the verjuice is expressed. Sometimes called crabwherry.
  • noun A light shallow rowboat, having seats for passengers, and plying on rivers and harbors. It resembles the dory.
  • noun A light half-decked fishing-vessel used in different parts of Great Britain and Ireland.
  • To transport in, or as in, a wherry.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun engraving A passenger barge or lighter plying on rivers; also, a kind of light, half-decked vessel used in fishing.
  • noun A long, narrow, light boat, sharp at both ends, for fast rowing or sailing; esp., a racing boat rowed by one person with sculls.
  • noun Prov. Eng. A liquor made from the pulp of crab apples after the verjuice is expressed; -- sometimes called crab wherry.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A light embarcation used to navigate inland waterways.
  • noun A flat-bottomed vessel previously employed by British merchants, notably in East Anglia, sometimes converted into pleasure boats.
  • noun A liquor made from the pulp of crab apples after the verjuice is extracted.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun light rowboat for use in racing or for transporting goods and passengers in inland waters and harbors
  • noun sailing barge used especially in East Anglia

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English whery.]

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Examples

Comments

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  • "...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

    February 11, 2008

  • I've never seen any of these, but I'm unconcerned. No wherries mate.

    August 27, 2021