ford

plural fords · alternative foorth

1. A location where a stream is shallow and the bottom has good footing, making it possible to cross from one side to the other with no bridge, by walking, riding, or driving through the water; a crossing.

   He swam the Esk river where ford there was none.

   1808 February 22, Walter Scott, “(please specify the introduction or canto number, or chapter name)”, in Marmion; a Tale of Flodden Field, Edinburgh: […] J[ames] Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Company, […]; London: William Miller, and John Murray, →OCLC

   Synonyms: water-splash

2. A stream; a current.

   Permit my ghost to pass the Stygian ford.

   1700, [John] Dryden, “Ceyx and Alcyone”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC

   1 more example

   With water of the ford / Or of the clouds.

   1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto VI”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 34

present singular third person fords · participle present fording · participle past forded · past forded · alternative foorth

1. To cross a stream by walking through it.

   He named that place, for it was near her dwelling, and on the road between Balerynie and Heriotside, which fords the Sker Burn.

   1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide

   3 more examples

   Since the time of Seyavi the deer have shifted their feeding ground across the valley at the beginning of deep snows, by way of the Black Rock, fording the river at Charley's Butte, and making straight for the mouth of the cañon that is the easiest going to the winter pastures on Waban.

   1903, Mary Hunter Austin, The Land of Little Rain, Houghton Mifflin, pages 31–2

   Ratau drove with reckless authority through the quiet morning fires of his father's and forefathers' town and forded a river of goats on the road leading out of it.

   1982, Nadine Gordimer, “A Hunting Accident”, in A Soldier's Embrace, Penguin, page 59

   2016, Bruce McClure and Deborah Byrd, "EarthSky's meteor shower guide for 2016" in earthsky.org, http://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/earthskys-meteor-shower-guide Some who witnessed the 1966 Leonid meteor storm said they felt as if they needed to grip the ground, so strong was the impression of Earth plowing along through space, fording the meteoroid stream.

2. broadlyTo traverse any precarious environment.

   I spent several days fording through dense jungle.

   2004, Intelligent Systems, translated by Nintendo of America, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, Nintendo, GameCube, level/area: Rogueport

   1 more example

   I use my ample shoulders to ford through the crowd, ignoring a curse here, smothering boos here and there, and generally standing my ground in the face of the disapprovals of those I shove.

   2013 December 2, Uzor Maxim Uzoatu, “The Antiman”, in Munyori Literary Journal

plural Fords · alternative fforde

1. countableuncountableA topographic surname from Middle English for someone who lived near a ford.

   We spoke to Ford and other hairstylists over 40 about what to expect from these changes and how to treat them. Read on for the experts’ tips for helping your hair age gracefully.

   2025 February 16, Sophie Shaw, “5 tips for healthy hair in your 40s and beyond, from professional hairstylists”, in CNN

2. countableuncountableA male given name transferred from the surname.
3. A placename:
   1. countableuncountableA hamlet in Dinton with Ford and Upton parish, Buckinghamshire (OS grid ref SP7709).
   2. countableuncountableA hamlet in Eckington parish, North East Derbyshire district, Derbyshire (OS grid ref SK4080).
   3. countableuncountableA suburb of Plymouth, Devon (OS grid ref SX4656).
   4. countableuncountableA hamlet in Holbeton parish, South Hams district, Devon (OS grid ref SX6150).
   5. countableuncountableA hamlet in Temple Guiting parish, Cotswold district, Gloucestershire (OS grid ref SP0829).
   6. countableuncountableA hamlet in Ford and Stoke Prior parish, south of Leominster, Herefordshire (OS grid ref SO5155)
   7. countableuncountableA suburban area in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton, Merseyside (OS grid ref SJ3398).
   8. countableuncountableA small village and civil parish in northern Northumberland (OS grid ref NT9437).
   9. countableuncountableA village and civil parish west of Shrewsbury, Shropshire (OS grid ref SJ4113).
   10. countableuncountableA village and civil parish in Arun district, West Sussex (OS grid ref TQ0003).
   11. countableuncountableA small village in North Wraxall parish, Wiltshire (OS grid ref ST8375).
   12. countableuncountableA village in Laverstock parish, near Salisbury, Wiltshire (OS grid ref SU1533).
   13. countableuncountableA small village at the south-west end of Loch Awe, Argyll and Bute council area, Scotland (OS grid ref NN8603).
   14. countableuncountableA hamlet in Wolfscastle community, Pembrokeshire, Wales (OS grid ref SM9526).
   15. countableuncountableA ghost town in Bartow County, Georgia.
   16. countableuncountableA minor city and township in Ford County, Kansas.
   17. countableuncountableAn unincorporated community in Clark County, Kentucky.
   18. countableuncountableA township in Kanabec County, Minnesota.
   19. countableuncountableAn unincorporated community in Dinwiddie County, Virginia.
   20. countableuncountableAn unincorporated community in Stevens County, Washington.
   21. countableuncountableA town in Taylor County, Wisconsin.
4. countableuncountableA carmaker, the Ford Motor Company; its brand.

plural Fords · alternative fforde

1. A car, truck, tractor, or other vehicle of this make.

   Their grandparents always drove Fords.

   5 more examples

   They have a Ford car now, and she don't seem so far away from me as she used to.

   1918, Willa Cather, My Antonia

   There were several of us and we had a little caravan — the Lanchester, a Packard, and a Ford or two.

   1922, Henry Ford, Samuel Crowther, My Life and Work, Garden City, New York: Garden City Publishing Company, Inc., →OCLC

   It is easy to see why the modern car manufacturer does not enjoy the eminence of a Ford or an Olds.

   1958, John Kenneth Galbraith, The Affluent Society, page 141

   It's a girl, my Lord, in a flatbed Ford slowin' down to take a look at me

   1972, “Take It Easy”, performed by Eagles

   Why don't you go round the country with a Ford van, preaching on market days?

   1995, Stella Gibbons, Cold Comfort Farm, page 90