DICT.TW Dictionary Taiwan

 Wharf n.; pl. Wharfs or Wharves
 1. A structure or platform of timber, masonry, iron, earth, or other material, built on the shore of a harbor, river, canal, or the like, and usually extending from the shore to deep water, so that vessels may lie close alongside to receive and discharge cargo, passengers, etc.; a quay; a pier.
    Commerce pushes its wharves into the sea.   --Bancroft.
 Out upon the wharfs they came,
 Knight and burgher, lord and dame.   --Tennyson.
 Note: ☞ The plural of this word is generally written wharves in the United States, and wharfs in England; but many recent English writers use wharves.
 2.  The bank of a river, or the shore of the sea.  [Obs.] “The fat weed that roots itself in ease on Lethe wharf.”
 Wharf boat, a kind of boat moored at the bank of a river, and used for a wharf, in places where the height of the water is so variable that a fixed wharf would be useless. [U. S.] --Bartlett.
 Wharf rat. Zool. (a) The common brown rat. (b) A neglected boy who lives around the wharfs. [Slang]

 wharf rat
      n 1: someone who lives near wharves and lives by pilfering from
           ships or warehouses
      2: brown rat that infests wharves