different between wharf vs mooring

English

Etymology

From Middle English wharf, from Old English hwearf (“heap, embankment, wharf”); related to Old English hweorfan (“to turn”), Old Saxon hwerf (whence German Werft), Dutch werf, Old High German hwarb (“a turn”), hwerban (“to turn”), Old Norse hvarf (“circle”), and Ancient Greek ?????? (karpós, “wrist”).

Pronunciation

• (General American) enPR: wôrf, IPA^(key): /w??f/
• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: wôf, IPA^(key): /w??f/
• (without the wine–whine merger) enPR: hwôrf, IPA^(key): /hw??f/.

In New Zealand, even those who distinguish wine and whine are likely to pronounce as /w??f/.

• Rhymes: -??(?)f

Noun

wharf (plural wharves or wharfs)

1. A man-made landing place for ships on a shore or river bank.
   • 1834-1874, George Bancroft, History of the United States, from the Discovery of the American Continent.

     Commerce pushes its wharves into the sea.

   • 1842, Alfred Tennyson, The Lady of Shalott

     Out upon the wharfs they came, / Knight and burgher, lord and dame.

2. The bank of a river, or the shore of the sea.

Synonyms

• (landing place): dock; quay

Hyponyms

• (landing place): jetty; pier; staithe, staith (Northern England)

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

wharf (third-person singular simple present wharfs, present participle wharfing, simple past and past participle wharfed)

1. (transitive) To secure by a wharf.
2. (transitive) To place on a wharf.

See also

• dock

Middle English

Alternative forms

• wherf, wharfe, warrf, wharghfe

Etymology

From Old English hwearf.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?arf/

Noun

wharf (plural wharves)

1. wharf

Derived terms

• wharfage

Descendants

• English: wharf
• Scots: wharf

References

• “wharf, n.(1).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2019-12-12.

English

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -u???? (without the poor-pour merger)
• Rhymes: -????? (British accents with the poor-pour merger)
• Rhymes: -o???? (North American accents with the poor-pour merger)

Verb

mooring

1. present participle of moor

Noun

mooring (plural moorings)

1. A place to moor a vessel.
2. The act of securing a vessel with a cable or anchor etc.
3. (figuratively) Something to which one adheres, or the means that helps one to maintain a stable position and keep one's identity - moral, intellectual, political, etc.
   • 1890, John George Nicolay and John Hay, Abraham Lincoln: A History

     The party of pro-slavery reaction was for the moment in the ascendant; and as by an irresistible impulse, the Supreme Court of the United States was swept from its hitherto impartial judicial moorings into the dangerous seas of polities.

   • 1898, Coates, Florence Earle, song: "Friendship from its Moorings Strays"

     Friendship from its moorings strays,

     Love binds fast together;

     Friendship is for balmy days,

     Love for stormy weather.

Derived terms

• mooring block
• mooring buoy

Related terms

• dock
• wharf

Translations

Anagrams

• rooming