ford
/fɔːd
/noun
A shallow place in a river or stream allowing one to walk or drive across.You used to be able to drive across the ford at Watersplash Lane, but it had to be blocked off because cars kept getting stuck halfway across, and we had to get tractors out to pull them clear....
- Competitors covering the ten-mile laps of course have to tackle hills, winding narrow tracks, fast forest roads and stream fords from 8pm on Saturday, September 20 until 8am the following day.
- The history of Maastricht goes back to approximately 50 B.C., when the Romans built a settlement by the main road near a ford in the river.
Synonyms
crossing place, crossing, causeway;
shallow place;
South African drift
verb [with object]
(Of a person or vehicle) cross (a river or stream) at a shallow place.I had a happy childhood in the classic English bourgeois fashion: I read voraciously, I explored expansive gardens, I dare say I even forded a stream or two....
- The travelers forded the river and climbed the winding creekbed.
- This route also involves crossing a high pass and fording a turbulent river, the Allt Cam in An Lairig.
Synonyms
cross, traverse;
wade across, walk across, drive across, travel across, make it across, make one's way across
Derivatives
fordable
/ adjective ...- The rivers, though generally fordable in places, afforded the Russian defenses a great advantage by channeling the German advances into more predictable routes.
- Before establishing control in Britain, the Romans probably forded the Thames in the area of modern-day Westminster, as this was the lowest fordable point in the river.
- He did not bother to see that the river was fordable in many places.
fordless
Origin
Old English, of West Germanic origin; related to Dutch voorde, also to fare.
This is a Germanic word, closely related to ferry (Middle English) which comes from Old Norse, and to fare (Old English). This originally meant both to journey, travel—as in farewell (Late Middle English) ‘go well, safe journey’—and the journey itself. From this developed the sense payment for a journey in late Middle English.
Rhymes
- percussion drill
- percussion figure
- percussion gun
- percussion gun-lock
- percussion hammer
- intellectualistic
- intellectuality
- intellectualize
- intellectually
- intellectualness
- intellectual property
- intelligence
- intelligence agency
- intelligence agent
- intelligence assessment
- intelligence center
- intelligence centre
- Intelligence Corps
- intelligenced
- intelligence department
- intelligence office
- intelligence quotient
- intelligencer
- intelligence service
- intelligence test