• (America) IPA: /fɔɹd/
• (RP) IPA: /fɔːd/
• (rhotic, horse-hoarse) IPA: /fo(ː)ɹd/
• (nonrhotic, horse-hoarse) IPA: /foəd/

ford (plural fords)

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.
   • 1808 February 21, Walter Scott, “(please specify the introduction or canto number, or chapter name)”, in Marmion; a Tale of Flodden Field, Edinburgh: Printed by J[ames] Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Company, […]; London: William Miller, and John Murray, OCLC 270129616 ↗:

     He swam the {{w

2. A stream; a current.

   • With water of the ford / Or of the clouds.

   • Permit my ghost to pass the Stygian ford.

• French: gué
• German: Furt
• Italian: guado
• Portuguese: vau
• Russian: брод
• Spanish: vado

ford (fords, present participle fording; past and past participle forded)

1. To cross a stream using a ford.
   • 1903, Mary Hunter Austin, The Land of Little Rain, Houghton Mifflin, pp. 31-2,

     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.

   • 1982, Nadine Gordimer, "A Hunting Accident" in A Soldier's Embrace, Penguin, p. 59,

     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.

   • 2016, Bruce McClure and Deborah Byrd, "EarthSky's meteor shower guide for 2016" in earthsky.org,

     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.

• French: passer à gué
• Italian: guadare
• Portuguese: vadear
• Russian: переходи́ть вброд
• Spanish: vadear

• (America) IPA: /fɔɹd/

1. Surname for someone who lived near a ford.
2. :
   1. A hamlet in Dinton with Ford and Upton parish, Buckinghamshire (OS grid ref SP7709).
   2. A hamlet south of Ridgeway (OS grid ref SK4080).
   3. A suburb in Plymouth, Devon (OS grid ref SX4656).
   4. A hamlet in Holbeton, South Hams (OS grid ref SX6150).
   5. A hamlet near Cutsdean (OS grid ref SP0829).
   6. A suburban area in the Sefton (OS grid ref SJ3398).
   7. A small village in Northumberland (OS grid ref NT9437).
   8. A village/and/civil parish west of Shrewsbury (OS grid ref SJ4113).
   9. A village/and/civil parish in Arun (OS grid ref TQ0003).
   10. A small village in North Wraxall, Wiltshire (OS grid ref ST8375).
   11. A village in Laverstock and Ford parish, near Salisbury (OS grid ref SU1533).
3. A small village at the south-west end of Loch Awe, Argyll and Bute (OS grid ref NN8603).
4. :
   1. An extinct town in Bartow County, Georgia.
   2. A small city in Ford County, Kansas.
   3. An unincorporated community in Clark County, Kentucky.
   4. An unincorporated community in Dinwiddie County, Virginia.
   5. An unincorporated community in Stevens County, Washington.
   6. A town in Taylor County, Wisconsin.

ford (plural fords)

1. A make of car, named for Henry Ford.
   • 1918, Willa Cather, My Antonia

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

   • 1922, Henry Ford, Samuel Crowther, My Life and Work, page 146

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

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

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

   • 1995, Stella Gibbons, Cold Comfort Farm, page 90

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

   • 2000, Catherine Ryan Hyde, Pay It Forward, page 24

     Unless, of course, he limped away, not sauntered off, maybe dragged himself to a hospital, maybe got out okay, maybe died, far from anything to tie him to a Ford extra cab, far from any ties to hometown news.

   • 2001, Bernard Goldberg, Bias: A CBS Insider Exposes how the Media Distort the News, page 174:

     And they can also live in a bigger house and drive something a little fancier than a Chevy or a Ford.

   • 2003, Lois Lowry, The Silent Boy, page 140

     But if he had a Ford automobile, he could simply telephone the garage, and--

     We didn't need a Ford motorcar.

   • 1989, Elmore Leonard, Killshot

     Elmore Leonard is as dependable as a Ford used to be and as knowing as a New York fashion designer.

   • 2004, Robert McCrum, Wodehouse: A Life, page 154

     When she spotted her stepfather coming towards her she had pulled over and Wodehouse crossed over to greet her, noticing too late that she was being followed by a Ford, which swerved to avoid the Buick.

   • 2004, Keith Bradsher, High and Mighty: The Dangerous Rise of the SUV, page 304

     A Ford dealer in Saudi Arabia repeatedly warned the automaker the same year that Firestone tires were failing on Explorers.

     A Ford memo in March 1999 said that Firestone's legal staff did not want to to replace tires in Saudi Arabia for fear that doing so would require Firestone to notify NHTSA, and added that a Ford lawyer had worries "similar to the Firestone concerns."

   • 2005, William Braxton Irvine, On Desire: Why We Want What We Want, page 26:

     He is disturbed not by the crass materialism of his life but by the fact that he is still driving a Ford when he could and should be driving a Porsche.

   • 2006, Hester Browne, The Little Lady Agency, page 59

     I remembered too late that Honey should probably drive a cute little Mini or a Ford Fiesta or some such. Damn.

• Portuguese: Ford
• Russian: Форд