Also 5–7 -ferre, 7 -ferr. Inflected transferred, etc. (a. F. transfér-er (3rd s. transfère) (14th c. in Littré), or its source, L. transfer-re, f. TRANS- + ferre to bear, carry, bring.]
1. trans. To convey or take from one place, person, etc., to another; to transmit, transport; to give or hand over from one to another.
1382. Wyclif, Ezek. xlviii. 14. Nether the first fruytis of the lond shuln be transferrid [gloss or born ouer, 1388 translatid], for thei ben halewid to the Lord.
c. 1425. St. Christina, xxxvii., in Anglia, VIII. 133/35. Þe biggynge of the abbeye was transferred to a better place.
c. 1430. Art of Nombryng, 9. Put a cifre þer and transferre the article towarde the lift hande.
1516. in Acts Parlt. Scotl. (1875), XII. 36/2. It is thocht … that þe said governoure … suld transfer himself to uthir cuntreis.
1624. Godwin, Moses & Aaron (1641), 158. The moderne Jewes doe transferre the fault upon certaine proselyte Ægyptians who came forth with them.
1655. Stanley, Hist. Philos., II. (1701), 73/1. He first transferr’d Natural Philosophy out of Ionia to Athens.
1703. Moxon, Mech. Exerc., 316. Divide one of these nine equal parts into two equal parts, and transfer that distance to the other eight equal parts.
1771. Goldsm., Hist. Eng., II. 357. Campegio … shortly after transferred the cause before the court of Rome.
1783. Burke, Rep. Affairs Ind., Wks. XI. 42. If the court of directors should disapprove of his being transferred to Bengal.
1809. R. Langford, Introd. Trade, 86. For transferring £5690 Reduced Stock into the Four per Cents.
1818. in Willis & Clark, Cambridge (1886), I. 573. Transferring three or four of the trees to another site.
1844. Ld. Brougham, Brit. Const., vii. (1862), 94. The people’s power being transferred to the representative body.
1860. Tyndall, Glac., I. xxii. 151. I transferred my scrip to his shoulders, and led the way.
b. fig. esp. in Sematology: see quots.
1586. A. Day, Eng. Secretary, II. (1625), 77. Metaphora, which is, when a word from the proper or right signification is transferred to another neere vnto the meaning.
1883. Murray, Eng. Dict., Gen. Explan. p. xxi. As the primitive sense [of words] has been … transferred boldly to figurative and analogical uses.
c. intr. for refl. or pass.
1646. G. Daniel, Upon Virgil, 32, Wks. 1878, I. 22. But Wee … averre Soules are not lost, or Dye, but doe transfer.
1901. Daily Chron., 24 Oct., 3/4. He transferred later to the 19th Hussars, in which regiment he served in the Soudan campaign.
1911. Webster, Transfer, to change from one car, line, or the like, to another for continuing one’s journey on a transfer.
2. Law. To convey or make over (title, right, or property) by deed or legal process.
1598. Florio, s.v. Trascriuere, To transfer or giue ouer his right to another.
1651. Hobbes, Leviath., I. xiv. 67. My right is not transferred, but remaineth till I transferre it by some other Act.
1671. Court Bks. Roy. African Co., 19 Dec. (P.R.O.). I do transfer £500 of my subscription in the new joint stock of the Royal Company to the Rt. Hon. George Lord Berkeley.
1694. J. Houghton, Collect. Improv. Husb. & Trade, V. No. 102 [Form]. ‘I A. B. do hereby sell, assign, and transferr unto C. D. Ten Shares in the Joynt-Stock … with all the present and future Profits thereof.’
1771. Junius Lett., lxvii. (1797), II. 235. To this son-in-law … you meant to transfer the … property.
1818. Cruise, Digest (ed. 2), IV. 65. A grant only transfers what the grantor may lawfully give.
1878. Jevons, Prim. Pol. Econ., 14. Sometimes things can be literally handed over, like a watch or a book; sometimes they can be transferred by a written deed.
3. To convey (a drawing or design) from one surface to another, esp. (a) to a lithographic stone, to earthenware, glass, etc., by means of transfer-paper; (b) to a new back or ground, as an embroidered pattern, etc.
1839. Ure, Dict. Arts, 1017. This [roll of flannel] is used as a burnisher, one end of it being rested against the shoulder, and the other end being rubbed upon the paper: by which means it transfers all the engraved traces to the biscuit. Ibid. (1860), (ed. 5), III. 501. There are two distinct methods of printing in use for china and earthenware; one is transferred on the bisque … and the other is transferred on the glaze. The first is called ‘press printing,’ and the latter ‘bat printing.’
1877. Knight, Dict. Mech., 2611/2. In engraving, a tracing may be made in pencil and transferred to the ground by running through the plate-press. An impression from a plate or stone may also be transferred to a stone.
Hence Transferred ppl. a., conveyed from one person, place, sense, etc., to another.
1863. H. Allon, Mem. J. Sherman, 279. At Surrey, for example, only 102 members were added in 1839, and 63 in 1840, including transferred members.
1883. Murray, Dict., Gen. Explan. p. xxi. The word was first taken into English … in a figurative, transferred, or specialized use.
1886. J. Ebsworth, Roxb. Ball., VI. 165. As a transferred ballad, Dulcina was entered to John White and Thomas Langley, in the Registers of the Stationers Company.
