wharfage

wharf +‎ -age

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈwɔː.fɪd͡ʒ/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈwɔɹ.fɪd͡ʒ/
• (without the wine–whine merger) IPA^(key): /ˈhwɔɹ.fɪd͡ʒ/

wharfage (countable and uncountable, plural wharfages)

1. A dock, quay, or pier.
2. Wharfs collectively.
   • 1924, Saki “The Old Town of Pskoff” in The Square Egg and Other Sketches, London: John Lane, p. 156,

     It is pleasant to swim well out into the stream of the river, and, with one’s chin on a level with the wide stretch of water, take in a “trout’s-eye view” of the little town, ascending in tiers of wharfage, trees, grey ramparts, more trees, and clustered roofs, with the old cathedral of the Trinity poised guardian-like above the crumbling walls of the Kremlin.

3. A fee charged for using a wharf.
   • 1895, John Houston Merrill, The American and English Encyclopedia of Law, p. 100.

     If the owner of goods deposited at a wharf sells them, and gives notice to the wharfinger of such sale, on tendering the wharfage then due, he is discharged from liability for future wharfage.

   • 1913, United States. Army. Corps of Engineers, Water terminal and transfer facilities, page 537:

     the wharfage or shorage rates are 10 cents per cord of wood, 10 cents per thousand feet of lumber, and 1 cent per tie, and these rates do not include handling

• (wharf usage fee): shorage, demurrage, cranage, tonnage, shippage