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Webster 1913 Edition

Wherry

Wher′ry

,
Noun.
;
pl.
Wherries
(#)
.
[Cf. Icel.
hverfr
shifty, crank,
hverfa
to turn, E.
whirl
,
wharf
.]
(Naut.)
(a)
A passenger barge or lighter plying on rivers; also, a kind of light, half-decked vessel used in fishing.
[Eng.]
(b)
A long, narrow, light boat, sharp at both ends, for fast rowing or sailing; esp., a racing boat rowed by one person with sculls.

Wher′ry

,
Noun.
[Cf. W.
chwerw
bitter.]
A liquor made from the pulp of crab apples after the verjuice is expressed; – sometimes called
crab wherry
.
[Prov. Eng.]
Halliwell.

Webster 1828 Edition

Wherry

WHERRY

,
Noun.
[a different orthography of ferry, formed with a strong breathing; like whistle, from L.]
1.
A boat used on rivers. The name is given to several kinds of light boats. It is also applied to some decked vessels used in fishing, in different parts of Great Britain and Ireland.
2.
A liquor made from the pulp of crabs after the verjuice is expressed; sometimes called crab-wherry. [Local.]

Definition 2024

wherry

wherry

English

Noun

wherry ‎(plural wherries)

  1. A light ship used to navigate inland waterways.
  2. A flat-bottomed vessel previously employed by British merchants, notably in East Anglia, sometimes converted into pleasure boats.
    • 1789, Olaudah Equiano, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano
      Here I used to enjoy myself in playing about the bridge stairs, and often in the watermen's wherries, with other boys. On one of these occasions there was another boy with me in a wherry, and we went out into the current of the river: while we were there two more stout boys came to us in another wherry, and, abusing us for taking the boat, desired me to get into the other wherry-boat. Accordingly I went to get out of the wherry I was in; but just as I had got one of my feet into the other boat the boys shoved it off, so that I fell into the Thames; and, not being able to swim, I should unavoidably have been drowned, but for the assistance of some watermen who providentially came to my relief.
    • 1928, Virginia Woolf, Orlando
      The river was astir early and late with barges, wherries, and craft of every description.
  3. A liquor made from the pulp of crab apples after the verjuice is extracted.

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