Pl. wharfs, wharves. Forms: 1 hwearf, wearf, hwerf, 1, 4 warf, 4 wherf(e, warffe, wharghffe, quarf, 5 qwerf, 5–7 warff, wharff(e, 5–8 wharfe, 6 quarfe, (wharthe), 7 hwarf, 7– wharf. [Late OE. hwearf (cf. earlier poetical comp. merehwearf sea-shore), corresp. to MLG. warf, werf mole, dam, wharf, raised site protected from flooding (LG. warf), whence EFris. warf, werf, Du. werf shipyard, G. werf wharf, pier, werft dockyard. Ultimately related to WHARF sb.2, WHARVE sb. and v.
‘Mr. Pickering notices this form of the plural of wharf, as peculiar to Americans. The English say wharfs. In the Colony and Province Laws of Massachusetts, Mr. Pickering says he has observed the plural wharfs (or wharfes) as late as the year 1735; but after that period the form wharves is used’ (Bartlett, Dict. Amer., 1848).]
1. A substantial structure of timber, stone, etc., built along the water’s edge, so that ships may lie alongside for loading and unloading. Often with prefixed sb., as fish-wharf, gun-wharf.
10[?]. Charter of Eadweard, in Kemble, Cod. Dipl., IV. 221. Ic wille ðat sainte Petre and ða ʓebroðera in Westminstre habben ðat land and ðone wearf … ðe Ulf and his wif … ʓafon.
1067. in Charter Roll 9 Edw. III., m. 18. De uno hwearfo quod est ad applicationem navium ad capud pontis illius civitatis [sc. London].
1080–5. in H. W. C. Davis, Regesta Regum Anglo-Norm. (1913), 126. Unum warf quod est ad caput pontis Londonie.
c. 1320. Domesday of St. Paul’s (Camden), 158*. An qwarvæ sive kayæ, muri sive wallæ … debite reparentur.
1320. Rolls of Parlt., I. 370/2. In shopis suis super Warfam predictam. Ibid. (1397), III. 371/1. De la novell Keye autrement appelle le Wherf [1432 Act 10 Hen. VI., c. 5 § 2 Qwerf] a le cost du dit Port de Caleys. Ibid. (1442), V. 54/2. Diverse Wharves and Keyes beyng by the water sides.
1485. Cal. Pat. Rolls, 6. [Keeping the] hawes and wharfes of Walton and Waybrigge.
1503–4. Act 19 Hen. VII., c. 37. § 5. Too Cotages or Meses wyth Howses & Wharfes … in Stepeney.
1669. Sturmy, Mariner’s Mag., Pen. & Forf., 8. If any Custom-house Officer … keep any Wharfe, or hold any Hostelry, or Tavern.
a. 1700. Evelyn, Diary, 17 Aug. 1654. A wharfe of hewn stone, which makes the river appeare very neate.
1815. J. Smith, Panorama Sci. & Art, I. 241. Its [sc. Blackfriars bridge] length, from wharf to wharf, is about nine hundred and ninety-five feet.
1834. Dickens, Sk. Boz, Steam Excurs. The bell at London-bridge Wharf rang; and a Margate boat was just starting.
1878. Nares, Polar Sea, I. i. 1. H.M. ships ‘Alert’ and ‘Discovery’ cast off from the dockyard wharf, Portsmouth.
1882. Rhys, Celtic Britain, ii. 46. The wharfs for the tin-barges were erected.
† 2. a. An embankment, mole or dam. Obs.
1038. Charter of Harold, in Thorpe, Charters, 341. Þa ʓyrnde he þæt he moste macian foran gen Mildryþe æker ænne hwerf wið þon wodan to werianne.
1567. Golding, Ovid’s Met., XV. 196 b. Untill that hee the bowwing wharf besyde the hauen tooke [orig. Tendit ad incurvo munitos aggere portus].
1600. Holland, Livy, XI. li. 1091. Lepidus … raised the great causey or wharfe at Tarracina. Ibid. (1601), Pliny, VI. xxviii. I. 140. The Apamians … set open the sluces, and breake up the wharfes and bankes that keepe these two rivers asunder.
† b. A terrace or raised platform. Obs.
1533. in W. H. St. John Hope, Windsor Castle (1913), I. 249. The makyng off a new wharff upon the north syde of the said Castell. Ibid. (1535), 262. The buttresses made on the bakesyde of the new Wharffe.
c. † The bank of a river (obs.); also, a gravel or sandbank.
1602. Shaks., Ham., I. v. 33. The fat weede That rots it selfe in ease, on Lethe Wharfe. Ibid. (1606), Ant. & Cl., II. ii. 218. From the Barge A strange inuisible perfume, hits the sense Of the adiacent Wharfes.
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., Wharf, in hydrography, is a scar, a rocky or gravelly concretion, or frequently a sandbank,… where the tides throw up dangerous ripples and overfalls.
† d. A large raft. Obs. rare.
1662. J. Bargrave, Pope Alex. VII. (1867), 119. They were brought upon warffs or raffts of many pines and firs.
e. A place raised or otherwise marked out on which stuff is deposited for subsequent removal to another place.
1725. in Dig. Proc. Crt.-leet Savoy (1789), 22. For making a dung wharfe or lay stall at the lower end of Fountain Court.
3. attrib. and Comb., as wharf-end, -frontage, head, -holder, -house, -land, -man, -master, -measure, -property, -side, -stead, -wall; wharf-boat (a) U.S. a boat supporting a platform and moored at a bank, used as a wharf; (b) a boat employed about a wharf; † wharf-gelt, ? an impost levied on shipping for the use of a wharf; wharf-rat (a) the common brown rat, Mus decumanus, which infests wharfs; (b) a man or boy who loafs about wharfs, often with the intention of stealing (slang).
1849. Lyell, 2nd Visit U.S., II. 227. In the *wharf-boat … I expected to find a bed for the first night.
1860. Bartlett, Dict. Amer., s.v., On the Western rivers the height of the water is so variable that a fixed wharf would be useless. In its place is used a rectangular float…. It is generally aground on the shore side, and is entered by a plank or movable platform. This is a wharf-boat.
1878. N. Amer. Rev., CXXVII. 225. She was used as a ‘wharf-boat’ or store-ship.
1897. Kipling, Captains Courageous, iv. 95. Her rigging flew knotted and tangled like weed at a *wharf-end. Ibid., x. 216. Statistics of boats, gear, *wharf-frontage, capital invested,… and profits.
1505. Cal. Pat. Rolls Hen. VII., 404. [Without paying any] sandegelt, *wharfgelt.
1800. Asiat. Ann. Reg., Chron., 35/1. All goods whatsoever, that are not disembarked at the *Wharf Head.
1883. Law Rep., 11 Q. B. Div. 486. Whether the persons for whom the weighing was done were *wharfholders or not.
1698. in Hertford Sess. Rolls (1905), I. 428. [Encroaching upon the river Lea] by building a *wharfe house … thereon.
1895. Daily Tel., 5 Aug., 5/3. By converting a piece of *wharfland on the Isle of Dogs into a public pleasure-ground, the London County Council have done something to relieve the dismal surroundings of one of the most populous and least picturesque parts of the metropolis.
1848. Mill, Pol. Econ., I. ii. § 6. Bargemen, sailors, *wharfmen.
a. 1618. Raleigh, in Rem. (1661), 179. From any Port Town … the Bridge-master or the *Wharfmaster … will deliver a true Note of the number of Lasts of Herrings brought to their Wharfes.
1821. Acc. Peculat. Coal Trade, 13. All coals sent out, *wharf measure.
1877. Burroughs, Taxation, 140. The whole *wharf property … was liable to be taxed.
1860. Bartlett, Dict. Amer., *Wharf-Rats. 1. Rats that inhabit wharves. 2. Thieves that infest the wharves of seaport towns.
1863. Hawthorne, Our Old Home, Boston, I. 269. Lolling on long-boats,… as sailors and old wharf rats are accustomed to do.
1842. Dickens, Amer. Notes, xi. A crowd of high-pressure steam-boats, clustered together by a *wharf-side.
1891. Meredith, One of our Conq., xxv. A hanged heavy look, suggestive of a wharfside crane.
1828. Craven Gloss., *Wharf-steead, a ford in a river. In Ray, it is warstead, q. d. waterstead.
1831–3. in Encycl. Metrop. (1845), VIII. 604/1. A *wharf wall … at the East end of His Majesty’s dock-yard, Woolwich.
