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Definition 2024


sea_change

sea change

See also: seachange

English

Alternative forms

Noun

sea change (plural sea changes)

  1. (idiomatic) A profound transformation.
    Public opinion has undergone a sea change since the 2002 elections.
    • c.1610-1611, William Shakespeare, The Tempest, Act 1, Scene 2,
      Full fathom five thy father lies: / Of his bones are coral made: / Those are pearls that were his eyes: / Nothing of him that doth fade / But doth suffer a sea-change / Into something rich and strange.
    • 1910, Jack London, Theft: A Play In Four Acts, Actors' Description of Characters,
      Anthony Starkweather. [] Essentially a moral man, his rigid New England morality has suffered a sea change and developed into the morality of the master-man of affairs, equally rigid, equally uncompromising, but essentially Jesuitical in that he believes in doing wrong that right may come of it.

Translations

References

  1. "Sea change" (World Wide Words)