Commerce pushes its wharves into the sea.
--Bancroft.
Out upon the wharfs they came, Knight and burgher,
lord and dame. --Tennyson.
Note: The plural of this word is generally written wharves in
the United States, and wharfs in England; but many
recent English writers use wharves.
2. [AS. hwearf.] The bank of a river, or the shore of the
sea. [Obs.] ``The fat weed that roots itself in ease on
Lethe wharf.'' --Shak.
{Wharf boat}, a kind of boat moored at the bank of a river,
and used for a wharf, in places where the height of the
water is so variable that a fixed wharf would be useless.
[U. S.] --Bartlett.
{Wharf rat}. (Zo["o]l.)
(a) The common brown rat.
(b) A neglected boy who lives around the wharfs. [Slang]