English

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Pronunciation

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Etymology 1

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From Middle English wharven (to turn), from Old English hweorfan (to turn), from Proto-West Germanic *hwerban (to turn), from Proto-Germanic *hwerbaną (to turn). Cognate with Dutch werven (to recruit), Icelandic hverfa (to turn), Faroese hvørva (to disappear), German werben (to recruit, advertise).

Verb

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wharve (third-person singular simple present wharves, present participle wharving, simple past wharved or whorf, past participle wharved or whorven)

  1. (Scotland, Northern England) To turn, turn over (especially of mown grass).
    • “Junda” Klingrahool (1898)ː
      It wharves the wair and stirs the sand.

References

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Etymology 2

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From Middle English wherve, from Old English hweorfa, related to the verb.

Noun

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wharve (plural wharves)

  1. The whorl of a spindle.
    • 1538, Elyot, Spondilus:
      a wherue, whyche is a rounde thyne of stone, or wodde, or leadde, put on a spyndell to make it runne rounde.
    • 1590, Barrough, Meth. Phisick, volume xxiv, published 1596, page 339:
      He did lay [...] a thick round peece of lead like vnto a wherue.
    • 1601, Pliny, Holland, xi. xxiv, I. page 323:
      So fine [...] a thread she [a spider] spinnes, hanging thereunto her self, and using the weight of her owne bodie in stead of a wherve.
    • 1688, Holme, Armoury III, xxi, page 266:
      The Warve or small Pullas.
    • 1693, Urquhart's Rabelais, III. xxviii, page 237:
      Wouldst thou [...] joynt the Wherves, slander the Spinning Quills, [...]
    • 1884, W. S. B. McLaren, Spinning, second edition, page 171:
      The wharve, B, together with sliding tube, C, runs loosely on the spindle and carries the bobbin.

Anagrams

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