barge (1)

[In Dut. bargie; Fr. barge = a hay-stack, a flat-bottomed boat for pleasure or burden, a pile of faggots; berge a beach, a steep bank, a shoal, a bank, a small boat; O. Fr. barge; Prov. barca, barga; Sp., Port., & Ital. barca; Low Lat. barga. Bark and barge were originally the same word.] [BARK.] 1. A sea-commander's boat. "It was consulted, when I had taken my barge and gone ashore, that my ship should have set set sail and and left me."- Raleigh . 2. A pleasure-boat. A boat fitted up with all nece ary equipments for comfort, festivity, and show. "They were put on board of a state barge, Macaulay: Hist . Eng ., ch. v. ." 3. A boat used on rivers for the conveyance of goods. getting into the large punts or barges , which were ordinarily used for ferrying men and cattle acro the harbour,."-Arnold Hist. Rome, ch. xxi. "By the margin, willow-veiled, Slide the heavy barges trailed." Tennyson: The Lady of Shalott.