Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Goods carried by a vessel or vehicle, especially by a commercial carrier; cargo.
  • noun A burden; a load.
  • noun Commercial transportation of goods.
  • noun The charge for transporting goods.
  • noun A railway train carrying goods only.
  • transitive verb To convey commercially as cargo.
  • transitive verb To load with goods to be transported.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To load or lade with goods or merchandise for transportation: often used figuratively.
  • To hire for the transportation of goods or merchandise.
  • To carry or transport as freight.
  • Same as fraught.
  • noun The cargo, or any part of the cargo, of a ship; lading; that which is carried by water; in the United States and Canada, in general, anything carried for pay either by water or by land; the lading of a ship, canal-boat, railroad-car, wagon, etc.
  • noun The price paid for the transportation of goods or merchandise by sea; by extension, in the United States and Canada, in general, the price paid for the transportation of goods or merchandise by land or by sea.
  • noun In a more general sense, the price paid for the use of a ship, including the transportation of passengers.
  • noun Short for freight-train.

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

  • adjective Employed in the transportation of freight; having to do with freight.
  • adjective a person employed by a transportation company to receive, forward, or deliver goods.
  • adjective See under Car.
  • adjective a railroad train made up of freight cars; -- called in England goods train.
  • noun That with which anything is fraught or laden for transportation; lading; cargo, especially of a ship, or a car on a railroad, etc.
  • noun The sum paid by a party hiring a ship or part of a ship for the use of what is thus hired.
  • noun The price paid a common carrier for the carriage of goods.
  • noun Freight transportation, or freight line.
  • transitive verb To load with goods, as a ship, or vehicle of any kind, for transporting them from one place to another; to furnish with freight

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

  • noun Payment for transportation.
  • noun Goods or items in transport.
  • noun Transport of goods.
  • verb transitive To transport (goods).
  • verb To load with freight.

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

  • noun goods carried by a large vehicle
  • noun transporting goods commercially at rates cheaper than express rates
  • verb transport commercially as cargo
  • noun the charge for transporting something by common carrier
  • verb load with goods for transportation

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English fraught, freight, from Middle Dutch or Middle Low German vracht, vrecht; see aik- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English freyght, from Middle Dutch vracht, Middle Low German vrecht ("cost of transport"), ultimately from Proto-Germanic *fra- (intensive prefix) + Proto-Germanic *aihtiz (“possession”), from Proto-Indo-European *eiḱ- (“to possess”), equivalent to for- +‎ aught. Cognate with Old High German frēht ("earnings"), Old English ǣht ("owndom"). More at for-, own.

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Examples

  • So I think freight will clearly -- the incremental cost in freight will go up, but we've done some things to actually take what we call freight miles, if you will, out of our system.

    unknown title 2011

  • We believe that our high charter coverage for the next two years should result in high vessel utilization while minimizing the effects of short term freight rate volatility on our cash flows.

    unknown title 2011

  • Obviously an electrification of STRACNET and elimination of bottlenecks where bulk freight is interfering with container freight will capture the bulk of the very long truck hauls … what the 110mph system permits is capture of more medium distance business.

    Matthew Yglesias » Ride the Freight Train 2009

  • For the inaugural show, it is lined with Mr. Kuitca's "Le Sacre," 54 mattresses painted with random maps, an unintentional reference, perhaps, to the padding found in freight elevators.

    New Gallery Elevates the Bowery Julie V. Iovine 2010

  • The first half of January saw a tidal wave of shippers closing retail stores and factories, curbing current output and capital spending – measures that can only mean more declines in freight demand.

    Matthew Yglesias » Question for Stimuskeptics 2009

  • The economy is like a friggin freight train on a downgrade ....

    Obama: Figures show recession slowing, despite job report 2009

  • I guess we got a celebration comin ', seein' as we're going to pull up stakes an 'pull our freight from the old burg.

    CHAPTER XVII 2010

  • Guess the freight is less than the costs of taxes and regulations.

    Sound Politics: Shapley's Audition 2006

  • Not like Jack London, either, who was in Vera Cruz looking as if he'd hopped a freight from the Klondike.

    The One in White 2004

  • Not like Jack London, either, who was in Vera Cruz looking as if he'd hopped a freight from the Klondike.

    The One in White 2004

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