Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use quay in a sentence

16 example sentences · noun, verb

Quay means a stone or concrete structure on navigable water used for loading and unloading vessels; a wharf. Example: “We were pooped within hailing of the quay and were nearly sunk.”

Examples of quay by meaning

nounA stone or concrete structure on navigable water used for loading and unloading vessels; a wharf.

  • moor up in the quay

More sentences with quay

  • We were pooped within hailing of the quay and were nearly sunk.From the entry poop
  • Fortunately, there were staples in the quay wall, and she was able to climb out of the water.From the entry staple
  • The quay teemed chock-a-block with porters, officials, clumps of overcoated people under umbrellas.2012, Michèle Roberts, Ignorance, page 218. From the entry chock-a-block
  • They found a little restaurant tucked away down by the harbour, almost on the quay.2008, Michael Pearce, A Dead Man in Barcelona, London: Constable & Robinson, →ISBN, page 134. From the entry untableclothed
  • He looked with vague hope up and down the quay, a big apple bulging in his neck.1922 February 2, James Joyce, “[Episode 10: Wandering Rocks]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company […], →OCLC, part II [Odyssey]…. From the entry apple
  • I left him and went to a tavern by the quays where the college bucks were drinking and singing hymns.1963, J P Donleavy, A Singular Man, published 1963 (USA), page 204. From the entry riposte
  • There are quays there and lamps and some squares of grass; a ladies and gentlemen, and a cinema.1941, Joyce Cary, chapter XLIV, in Herself Surprised, page 108. From the entry gentlemen
  • The first waggon was loaded, and moved a few yards along the quay, and the second took its place.1922 February, H. Harrison, “Plot and Counterplot: A Tale of the Smuggling Canker in the Days Following the Battle of Waterloo”, in The…. From the entry wagon
  • He staggers against a stanchion, trips over a rope, and tumbles into the space between the quay and the steel plates of the freighter.2013, J. M. Coetzee, chapter 27, in The Childhood of Jesus, Melbourne, Australia: The Text Publishing Company, page 268. From the entry stanchion
  • With the forespring holding the bow, the wash from the prop flowing over the rudder will push our stern out clear of the quay.1982, Cruising World - Jul – Dec 1982, page 35. From the entry forespring
  • Make sure there is a fender ready right forward because the bow will swing into the quay due to the pull of the forespring.1982, Cruising World - Jul – Dec 1982, page 35. From the entry forespring
  • The boathouse was a stone one, with a narrow quay along each wall inside, and a small jetty sticking out beyond it into the lake.1930 July 21, Arthur Ransome, “Making Ready”, in Swallows & Amazons, London: Jonathan Cape, […], published 1953, →OCLC, page 23. From the entry jetty
  • Of course if they ran a tramline along the North Circular from the cattle market to the quays value would go up like a shot.1922 February 2, James Joyce, “[Episode 4: Calypso]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company […], →OCLC, part II [Odyssey], page 56. From the entry ng
  • Although the waterway and quay are no longer used by commercial traffic, the port area - Commercial End, off the main road - retains much of its original character.1980, AA Book of British Villages, Drive Publications Ltd, page 369, about Swaffham Bulbeck. From the entry Commercial End
  • Two ships can be accommodated on the berth, although a single-vessel discharge is the usual arrangement, and there are three 20-ton ore unloaders on the quay.1963 June, B. Perren, “Colvilles iron ore traffic in the Glasgow area”, in Modern Railways, page 410. From the entry unloader

Meaning of quay

  1. noun A stone or concrete structure on navigable water used for loading and unloading vessels; a wharf.
  2. verb To land or tie up at a quay or similar structure, especially used in the phrase "quay up".

Full definition of quay

Questions about quay in a sentence

How do you use quay in a sentence?
Quay is used as a noun and verb. For example: “We were pooped within hailing of the quay and were nearly sunk.”
What is a short sentence with quay?
“moor up in the quay”
What does quay mean?
Quay means a stone or concrete structure on navigable water used for loading and unloading vessels; a wharf.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: quay (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this page: “How to use quay in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/quay. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.