wherry
/ˈwɛri
/noun (plural wherries)
1A light rowing boat used chiefly for carrying passengers.On Sunday 2 June, the wherry Albion will carry the original Millennium flame from where it has been carefully kept alight, in Great Yarmouth's St Nicholas Church....
- Successive displays chronicle the Greek trireme, perhaps the ultimate statement of rowing power, the Venetian gondola, the Thames wherry, wooden-hulled lifeboats and arctic whaleboats.
- After that, at five-minute intervals, came waves of increasingly speedy fixed-seat rowing craft - home-built plywood skiffs, rugged surf boats, fragile wherries, multi-oared gigs.
1.1British A large light barge.
Derivatives
wherryman
- A gritty community of fishermen and farmers, Hythe has always had its ferrymen, or wherrymen as they were known for centuries.
- Bexfield is said to have been one of the wherrymen who plied the Yare between Norwich and Yarmouth.
- Hard times sometimes called for desperate measures, and wherrymen were not averse to a bit of smuggling.
Origin
Late Middle English: of unknown origin.