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Webster 1913 Edition

Beach

Beach

(bēch)
,
Noun.
;
pl.
Beaches
(-ĕz)
.
[Cf. Sw.
backe
hill, Dan.
bakke
, Icel.
bakki
hill, bank. Cf.
Bank
.]
1.
Pebbles, collectively; shingle.
2.
The shore of the sea, or of a lake, which is washed by the waves; especially, a sandy or pebbly shore; the strand.
Beach flea
(Zool.)
,
the common name of many species of amphipod Crustacea, of the family
Orchestidæ
, living on the sea beaches, and leaping like fleas.
–
Beach grass
(Bot.)
,
a coarse grass (
Ammophila arundinacea
), growing on the sandy shores of lakes and seas, which, by its interlaced running rootstocks, binds the sand together, and resists the encroachment of the waves.
–
Beach wagon
,
a light open wagon with two or more seats.
–
Raised beach
,
an accumulation of water-worn stones, gravel, sand, and other shore deposits, above the present level of wave action, whether actually raised by elevation of the coast, as in Norway, or left by the receding waters, as in many lake and river regions.

Beach

,
Verb.
T.
[
imp. & p. p.
Beached
(bēcht)
;
p. pr. & vb. n.
Beaching
.]
To run or drive (as a vessel or a boat) upon a beach; to strand;
as, to
beach
a ship
.

Webster 1828 Edition

Beach

BEACH

,
Noun.
The shore of the sea, or of a lake, which is washed by the tide and waves; the strand. It may be sometimes used for the shore of large rivers.

Definition 2024

Beach

Beach

See also: beach

English

Proper noun

Beach

  1. A surname​.
  2. A hamlet/village in Gloucestershire, England.
  3. A city in North Dakota.

beach

beach

English

Stinson Beach, in California.

Noun

beach ‎(plural beaches)

  1. The shore of a body of water, especially when sandy or pebbly.
    • 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 1, in Mr. Pratt's Patients:
      Pretty soon I struck into a sort of path […]. It twisted and turned, […] and opened out into a big clear space like a lawn. And, back of the lawn, was a big, old-fashioned house, with piazzas stretching in front of it, and all blazing with lights. 'Twas the house I'd seen the roof of from the beach.
  2. A horizontal strip of land, usually sandy, adjoining water.
    • 1988, Robert Ferro, Second Son:
      Up and down, the beach lay empty for miles.
  3. (Britain dialectal, Sussex, Kent) The loose pebbles of the seashore, especially worn by waves; shingle.

Synonyms

  • (shore, especially when sandy):
  • (horizontal strip of land adjoining water): sand, strand, backshore

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

beach ‎(third-person singular simple present beaches, present participle beaching, simple past and past participle beached)

  1. (intransitive) To run aground on a beach.
    • 1941, Emily Carr, Klee Wyck, "Salt Water,"
      When we finally beached, the land was scarcely less wet than the sea.
  2. (transitive) To run (something) aground on a beach.
    • 1851, Herman Melville, Moby-Dick, Chapter 90,
      It seems that some honest mariners of Dover, or Sandwich, or some one of the Cinque Ports, had after a hard chase succeeded in killing and beaching a fine whale which they had originally descried afar off from the shore.
    • 1974, Homer, Iliad, translated by Robert Fitzgerald, Doubleday, Book Two, lines 530-31, p. 53,
      Great Aías led twelve ships from Sálamis
      and beached them where Athenians formed for battle.

Synonyms

Derived terms

Translations

French

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /bitʃ/

Etymology

Borrowing from English beach.

Noun

beach m ‎(plural beachs)

  1. (Congo) port where goods and passengers embark and debark
    • 2006 March 14, Tshiala David, Baisse du trafic au beach Ngobila entre Kinshasa et Brazzaville, in Le Potentiel:
      C’est ainsi qu’elles ont décidé d’embarquer leurs marchandises dans des pirogues motorisés qui desservent les beachs privés entre les deux rives du fleuve Congo.‎
      (please add an English translation of this usage example)
    • 2007, Jean-Alexis M'Foutou, La langue française au Congo-Brazzaville:
      Le Beach de Brazzaville hier réputé lieu de violence, de viols et de braquages, présent aujourd’hui des conditions de sécurité plutôt rassurantes.‎
      (please add an English translation of this usage example)

Irish

Alternative forms

  • beachóg f

Etymology

From Old Irish bech, from Proto-Celtic *beko-, *bikos (compare Middle Welsh beg-egyr, byg-egyr ‎(“drone”)), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰik-, *bʰoik- (compare Czech včela, Latin fūcus), enlargement of *bʰī-, *bʰei- (compare Welsh by-daf ‎(“beehive”), English bee).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /bʲax/

Noun

beach f ‎(genitive singular beiche, nominative plural beacha)

  1. bee (insect)

Declension

Derived terms

Mutation

Irish mutation
Radical Lenition Eclipsis
beach bheach mbeach
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every
possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.

References

  • "beach" in Foclóir Gaeilge-Béarla, An Gúm, 1977, by Niall Ó Dónaill.
  • “bech” in Dictionary of the Irish Language, Royal Irish Academy, 1913–76.

Scottish Gaelic

Beach air flùr
Bee on flower

Etymology

From Old Irish bech, from Proto-Celtic *beko-, *bikos, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰik-, *bʰoik-, enlargement of *bʰī-, *bʰei-.

Noun

beach m ‎(genitive singular beacha, plural beachan)

  1. bee
  2. beehive
  3. wasp

Derived terms

Synonyms

References

  • “bech” in Dictionary of the Irish Language, Royal Irish Academy, 1913–76.

Etymology

From Middle English bache, bæcche ‎(“bank, sandbank”), from Old English bæċe, beċe ‎(“beck, brook, stream”), from Proto-Germanic *bakiz ‎(“brook”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰog- ‎(“flowing water”). Cognate with Dutch beek ‎(“brook, stream”), German Bach ‎(“brook, stream”), Swedish bäck ‎(“stream, brook, creek”). More at batch, beck.

Pronunciation

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