Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • That may be waded or passed through on foot, as a body of water.

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

  • adjective Capable of being forded.

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

  • adjective of a body of water Able to be forded.

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

  • adjective shallow enough to be crossed by walking or riding on an animal or in a vehicle

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From ford +‎ -able.

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Examples

  • Two miles down was a drift '(they call a fordable dip a drift in

    The Red True Story Book Andrew Lang 1900

  • It was impossible to imagine, he said, “that the angry armies of two angry and quarrelling nations should day after day face each other with cannons pointed at each other, and only a fordable river between them, and conflict not result.”

    A Country of Vast Designs Robert W. Merry 2009

  • It was impossible to imagine, he said, “that the angry armies of two angry and quarrelling nations should day after day face each other with cannons pointed at each other, and only a fordable river between them, and conflict not result.”

    A Country of Vast Designs Robert W. Merry 2009

  • The stream was very high and the current very swift, the water, tumbling along over its rocky bed in an immense volume, but still it was fordable for infantry if means could be devised by which the men could keep their feet.

    She Makes Her Mouth Small & Round & Other Stories 2010

  • The ground had long been well cleared of timber, and the rolling surface presented so few obstacles to the movement of armies that they could march over the country in any direction almost as well as on the roads, the creeks and rivers being everywhere fordable, with little or no difficulty beyond that of leveling the approaches.

    She Makes Her Mouth Small & Round & Other Stories 2010

  • Davout deployed all of his artillery on the French side of the river which was not fordable, so it could only be crossed at one of the two bridges spanning the water so that it could enfilade any Russian attack on the long ridge that was perpendicular to the Russian cavalry, thereby screening the advancing French infantry.

    Archive 2009-05-01 Der Alte Fritz 2009

  • Davout deployed all of his artillery on the French side of the river which was not fordable, so it could only be crossed at one of the two bridges spanning the water so that it could enfilade any Russian attack on the long ridge that was perpendicular to the Russian cavalry, thereby screening the advancing French infantry.

    In The Grand Manner - Day 2 Der Alte Fritz 2009

  • When I reached the banks of the great estuary, which are here very bare and exposed, the waters had receded from the large and level space of sand, through which a stream, now feeble and fordable, found its way to the ocean.

    Redgauntlet 2008

  • This was a great inconvenience, and would have proved a more serious one, but that the river was fordable for man and horse in ordinary weather.

    The Monastery 2008

  • At first, they thought this Brook would have put a Period to their Passage; but, upon Search, they found it fordable, and the Vault to extend it self a great Way beyond, 'till at last they came to Steps, which mounted a vast Height, but when they were got to the

    Exilius 2008

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