freight
/freɪt
/noun [mass noun]
1Goods transported in bulk by truck, train, ship, or aircraft: a decline in the amount of freight carried by rail [as modifier]: a freight train...
- According to transport experts, one freight train carries the equivalent of 75 lorry loads, reducing road congestion and pollution levels.
- Ministers also believe that the Forth Rail Bridge may be being placed under too much strain because of increasing amounts of freight being carried by rail.
- Armed guards had for decades been placed on freight trains carrying easily stolen freight through populated areas, but thefts in transit continued.
Synonyms
cargo, load, haul, consignment, delivery, shipment;
merchandise, goods
rare lading, freightage
1.1The transport of bulk goods by truck, train, ship, or aircraft: the truck-based system can outperform air freight at distances of up to seven hundred miles...
- What's more, local food doesn't have to travel very far so packaging, fuel consumption and air pollution from road freight are all kept to a minimum.
- At the same time, some shipments may be transferred from air to ocean freight as customers accept longer journey times to save money, Emery's Noske said.
- The limited use of the Sligo rail service for freight could see its viability called into question by the rail review.
Synonyms
transportation, transport, conveyance, freightage, carriage, carrying, portage, haulage, distribution, delivery;
traffic
1.2A charge for transport by freight: a bill indicating that the freight has been paid...
- They'd far prefer to charge all customers full freight rather than start extensive discounting programs.
- But in case not, I paid full freight for the machine I described in this post.
- Which means that even with taxes and freight halfway across the world, wine is relatively competitively priced.
verb [with object]
1Transport (goods) in bulk by truck, train, ship, or aircraft: the metals had been freighted from the city...
- This material is freighted to Ghyari by truck and hauled up the ice on mule and donkey trains.
- I'm aware that fuel can be freighted out of Perth for about two cents a litre by road.
- There was also glass in the windows, and several loads of finished lumber had been freighted in from Dodge City.
Synonyms
transport, transport in bulk, convey, carry, ship, drive;
send, send off, dispatch
2 (be freighted with) Be laden or burdened with: each word was freighted with anger...
- For Kerouac, the word ‘beat’ was freighted with meaning.
- Yet few tourists, standing in its shadow on the Champ de Mars, scene of the first anniversary of the Revolution in 1790, may be aware that this site of memory is freighted with so much historical meaning.
- How you knock on a door, says Mr Pullin, is freighted with meaning: there is a world of difference between tentative tapping and insistent hammering.
Origin
Late Middle English (in the sense 'hire of a ship for transporting goods'): from Middle Dutch, Middle Low German vrecht, variant of vracht 'ship's cargo'. Compare with fraught.
fraught from Late Middle English:
Something fraught is now usually filled with danger or anxiety, but at first the word simply meant ‘laden’ or ‘equipped’. It comes from medieval Dutch vracht ‘ship's cargo’, source also of freight (Late Middle English).