freight

Etymology

Definitions

1. 1

   The transportation of goods (originally by water

   The transportation of goods (originally by water; now also (chiefly US) by land); also, the hiring of a vehicle or vessel for such transportation.

2. 2

   Goods or items in transport

   Goods or items in transport; cargo, luggage.

   • The freight shifted and the trailer turned over on the highway.
3. 3

   Payment for transportation.

   • The freight was more expensive for cars than for coal.
   • Had the ship earned her freight? To earn freight there must, of course, be either a right delivery, or a due and proper offer to deliver the goods to the consignees.
4. ›+ 9 more definitionsshow fewer

   1. 4

      A burden, a load.

      • Now homeward through the thickening hubbub, where See, among less distinguishable shapes, […] the stately and slow-moving Turk, With freight of slippers piled beneath his arm!
   2. 5

      Cultural or emotional associations.

   3. 6

      Ellipsis of freight train.

      • They shipped it ordinary freight to spare the expense.
      • The track, raggedly defined in trampled loam and muddy furrow, bent in a direction which indicated that its terminus might be the switch where the empty cars had stood last night, waiting for the one-o'clock freight.
   4. 7

      To load (a vehicle or vessel) with freight (cargo)

      To load (a vehicle or vessel) with freight (cargo); also, to hire or rent out (a vehicle or vessel) to carry cargo or passengers.

      • It is true, there be few Merchants, that with the Merchandiſe they buy at home, can fraight a Ship, to export it; or with that they buy abroad, to bring it home; and have therefore need to joyn together in one Society; […]
      • [T]hey who freight their wealth upon a hundred vessels are more liable, Morton, are they not, to the peril of the winds and waves, than they who venture it only upon one?
   5. 8

      To transport (goods).

   6. 9

      To load or store (goods, etc.).

      • Fortune freights not your channel with her hoarded stores, and Pleasure ventures not her silken sails upon your tide; […]
      • Love, that fulfilleth his heart with glee, Love, that freighteth his breast with sighs, Love that must madden both you and me:— […]
   7. 10

      To carry (something) as if it is a burden or load.

   8. 11

      Chiefly followed by up

      Chiefly followed by up: to carry as part of a cargo.

      • Experience freightest for a better life. The folk that comes not with us have offended In that for which one Cæsar, triumphing, Heard himself called in contumely, 'Queen.'
      • On their journeys those Britons were used to long fasts, and knew how to bear them; and also how to freight up against probable fasts before starting, after the style of the Indian and the anaconda.
   9. 12

      Freighted

      Freighted; laden.

      • [H]is ſouldiers, ſeeing great prizes brought out of the enemies Land, and every ſhip freight therewith; were mightily incenſed and ſet on fire with a burning deſire to be tranſported over thither with all ſpeed poſſible.

The neighborhood

• neighborfraught