n. — Newfoundland, Fishing
a large boat used to process cod.
Type: 3. Semantic Change — OED-3 defines barge as 'a flat-bottomed freight-boat', a meaning consistent across most dictionaries (see OED-3, s.v. "barge" (2)). In Newfoundland and Labrador, the term takes on a narrower meaning of 'a large boat used to collect, hold and process cod' (COD-2, s.v. "barge" (2)) as a result of the province's traditional and long-standing dependence on the fishery. Clarke (2010b: 118) notes that a number of NLE terms, such as this one, have consequently undergone semantic narrowing in ocean and fishery contexts. Processing of cod has given way other kinds of fish due to a depletion of cod stock (see the 1994 quotation) and the 1993 cod moratorium.
See also COD-2, s.v. "barge" (2), which is marked "Cdn (Nfld)", DNE, s.v. "barge".