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A franchise or right to maintain a vessel for carrying passengers and freight across a river, bay, etc., charging tolls. Ferry bridge, a ferryboat adapted in its structure for the transfer of railroad trains across a river or bay. -- Ferry railway. See under Railway.

Henceforth, my early care . . . Shall tend thee, and the fertile burden ease Of thy full branches. Milton.

A reformed branch of the Bernardines, founded in 1577 at Feuillans, near Toulouse, in France.

A small fiber; the branch of a fiber; a very slender thread; a fibrilla. Cheyne.

ing a finger in form. -- Finger sponge (Zoöl.), a sponge having finger-shaped lobes, or branches. -- Finger stall, a cover or shield for a finger. -- Finger steel, a steel instrument for whetting a currier's knife. To burn one's fingers. See under Burn. -- To have a finger in, to be concerned in. [Colloq.] -- To ha…

A branch of the Mongolian race, inhabiting Northern and Eastern Europe, including the Magyars, Bulgarians, Permians, Lapps, and Finlanders. [Written also Fins.]

A young, flexible shoot of a plant; esp., the long trailing branch of a vine, or a slender branch in certain mosses.

A tropical leguminous bush (Poinciana, or Cæsalpinia, pulcherrima) with prickly branches, and showy yellow or red flowers; -- so named from its having been sometimes used for hedges in the West Indies. Baird.

A cluster of leaves, flowers, and branches; especially, the representation of leaves, flowers, and branches, in architecture, intended to ornament and enrich capitals, friezes, pediments, etc. Foliage plant (Bot.), any plant cultivated for the beauty of its leaves, as many kinds of Begonia and Coleus.…

A curve of the third order, consisting of two infinite branches, which have a common asymptote. The curve has a double point, and a leaf-shaped loop; whence the name. Its equation is x3 + y3 = axy.

Forked or branched like a pair of forceps; constructed so as to open and shut like a pair of forceps. Sir T. Browne.

One of the parts into which anything is furcated or divided; a prong; a branch of a stream, a road, etc.; a barbed point, as of an arrow. Let it fall . . . though the fork invade The region of my heart. Shak. A thunderbolt with three forks. Addison.

Formed into a forklike shape; having a fork; dividing into two or more prongs or branches; furcated; bifurcated; zigzag; as, the forked lighting. A serpent seen, with forked tongue. Shak.

Having the ends forked or branched, and the ends of the branches terminating abruptly as if cut off; -- said of an ordinary, especially of a cross.

The liberty or franchise of having a chase; free chase. Burrill.

Invested with a particular freedom or franchise; enjoying certain immunities or privileges; admitted to special rights; -- followed by of. He therefore makes all birds, of every sect, Free of his farm. Dryden.

Privileges; franchises; immunities. Your charter and your caty's freedom. Shak.

ng raised ribs that form continuations of the rails, to guide the wheels where one track branches from another or crosses it.

The act of stripping, as trees, of leaves or branches; a kind of pruning. Evelyn.

The pulpy, edible seed vessels of certain plants, especially those grown on branches above ground, as apples, oranges, grapes, melons, berries, etc. See 3.