Wharfie

noun, slang

noun, slang ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A wharf worker: synonym of dockworker. Australia, New-Zealand, colloquial, informal

    "“It’s a twenty-four-hour stoppage,” he said. “The wharfies went to the Arbitration Court for another pound a week for something or other, and they didn’t get it, so they’ve stopped work for a day to show their displeasure […]”"

Example

More examples

"“It’s a twenty-four-hour stoppage,” he said. “The wharfies went to the Arbitration Court for another pound a week for something or other, and they didn’t get it, so they’ve stopped work for a day to show their displeasure […]”"

Etymology

From wharf + -ie.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.