Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun One who keeps or plies a ferry.

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

  • noun One who maintains or attends a ferry.

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

  • noun A man who operates a ferry.
  • noun Greek mythology Charon

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

  • noun a man who operates a ferry

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

ferry +‎ -man.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word ferryman.

Examples

  • Now the ferryman was a noble and did not care for service, and those who helped him were as proud as he.

    Hero Tales and Legends of the Rhine Lewis Spence 1914

  • The ferryman was a soldier in the employ of the Telegraphic Commission.

    VII. With a Mule Train Across Nhambiquara Land 1914

  • The ferryman was a soldier in the employ of the Telegraphic Commission.

    Through the Brazilian Wilderness Theodore Roosevelt 1888

  • The ferryman was a poor man, and was likely to remain a poor man to the end of his life.

    Haste and Waste; Or, the Young Pilot of Lake Champlain. a Story for Young People Oliver Optic 1859

  • Those words, as the story goes, were used in calling a ferryman, asking someone in the house to come out, and so forth.

    OUPblog 2008

  • The "ferryman" who kept watch over the river of death was called Arad-Ea, "servant of Ea".

    Myths of Babylonia and Assyria Donald Alexander Mackenzie 1904

  • ‘Verily Allah Almighty hath taken such a saint to Himself and hath appointed thee to fill his place; so go thou to a certain person (naming the ferryman), and take of him the dead man’s gown and bottle and staff, for he left them with him for thee.’

    The Book of The Thousand Nights And A Night 2006

  • Hello is related to halôn, a verb from the medieval language Old High German meaning “to fetch,” and in particular, when calling out across the water to hail a ferryman, “to hail.”

    The English Is Coming! Leslie Dunton-Downer 2010

  • Hello is related to halôn, a verb from the medieval language Old High German meaning “to fetch,” and in particular, when calling out across the water to hail a ferryman, “to hail.”

    The English Is Coming! Leslie Dunton-Downer 2010

  • When they reached the sand-spit, crowded with heterogeneous piles of merchandise and buzzing with men, she stopped long enough to shake hands with her ferryman.

    CHAPTER I 2010

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.