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freight (frāt)
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n.
1. Goods carried by a vessel or vehicle, especially by a commercial carrier; cargo.
2. A burden; a load.
3.
a. Commercial transportation of goods.
b. The charge for transporting goods. Also called freightage.
4. A railway train carrying goods only.
tr.v. freight·ed, freight·ing, freights
1. To convey commercially as cargo.
2. To load with goods to be transported.
3. To imbue with a specified element or elements: freighted her words with innuendo.
[Middle English fraught, freight, from Middle Dutch or Middle Low German vracht, vrecht; see aik- in the Appendix of Indo-European roots.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2020 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
 

Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices

    Thousands of entries in the dictionary include etymologies that trace their origins back to reconstructed proto-languages. You can obtain more information about these forms in our online appendices:

    Indo-European Roots

    Semitic Roots

    The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots.

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