east

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Away in the east was a trace of smoke as though a grimy finger had stained the sky just above the sea-line Ship," said the mate It was the one word of English that he knew.

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Definitions (45)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (10)

  1. noun The cardinal point on the mariner's compass 90° clockwise from due north and directly opposite west.
  2. noun The direction of the earth's axial rotation.
  3. noun An area or region lying in the east.

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Examples (50)

  • At dawn of Sunday a cannon woke the men, loud and startling, McDowell's signal gun, fired from Centreville, and announcing to the Federal host that the interrupted march, the "On to Richmond" blazoned on banners and chalked on trunks, would now be resumed, willy nilly the "rebel horde" on the southern bank of Bull Run CHAPTER VII THE DOGS OF WAR In the east was a great flare of pink with small golden clouds floating across, all seen uncertainly between branches of pine. —  The Long Roll
  • On the west of the royal chapel a screen depicts the legends of the Confessor's life; on the east is the mutilated tomb of Henry V., the victor of Agincourt; above it the Chantry Chapel, where, after centuries of neglect, rest the remains of his wife, the French Catherine, ancestress of the great Tudor line While the different dynasties succeeded one another, the building of the monastery and church went on slowly but surely under different Abbots, the monastic funds helped by gifts of money from the Kings and Queens and from the pilgrims who visited the shrine. —  Westminster The Fascination of London
  • On the east is the mainland, broken and bitten into with long creeks and bays. —  Priscilla's Spies
  • To the north and the east was the great chain of lakes which extend a third of the way across North America. —  Afar in the Forest
  • On the east are the abrupt rocks and precipices of Vaucluse, distant about five leagues, and which complete, as it were, the garden wall around Avignon and its territory The climate of Avignon, though so strangely inveighed against by Petrarch, is at once healthy and salubrious. —  Travels through the South of France and the Interior of Provinces of Provence and Languedoc in the Years 1807 and 1808
 

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Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

west ·  north ·  valley ·  mile ·  northeast ·  interior ·  upper ·  coast ·  south-west ·  distant ·  front ·  opposite

Etymologies (4)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English est, from Old English ēast; see aus- in Indo-European roots.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (3)

  1. from Middle English est, eest, æst, east, n., east (accusative est, etc., as adverb), from Anglo-Saxon eást, adverb, orig. the accusative or dative (locative) of the noun, used adverbially (never otherwise as a noun, and never as an adjective, the forms so given in the dictionaries being simply the adverb (eást or eastan), alone or in comp.), to the east, in the east, east; in comp. eást- (est-, eest-, etc.), a quasiadj., as in eást-dǣl, the eastern region, the east, etc. (later English east, adjective); = Dutch oost = Friesic east, aest = Low German oost, German ost = Swedish ost = Danish ost, öst, east (as a noun, in other than adverbial use; all modern, and developed from the older adverbial uses) (cf. Old French est, hest, French est = Spanish Portuguese este, Spanish Portuguese also with the def. art., leste = Italian est, from the English): (1) Anglo-Saxon eást = Dutch oost = Danish öst, adverb, to the east, in the east, east; (2) Anglo-Saxon eástan, eásten, ēsten = Old Saxon ōstan, ōstana = OFries. aesta, āsta, Friesic āsta = Middle Low German ostene, osten = Old High German ōstana, Middle High German ōstene, ōsten, German osten = Icelandic austan, adverb, properly ‘from the east (hither),’ but in Middle High German and G. also ‘in the east, east’; hence the noun, Dutch oosten = Middle Low German osten = Old High German ōstan, Middle High German ōsten, German osten = Swedish östan = Danish östen, the east; (3) Anglo-Saxon* eástor (not found, but perhaps the orig. form of eást), Middle English ester-, English easter- (in comp.) = Old Saxon ōstar = OFries. āster = Dutch ooster = Old High German ōstar, Middle High German ōster, German oster (in comp.) = Swedish öster = Danish öster = Icelandic austr, adverb, to the east, east, Swedish Danish Icelandic also as noun, the east; (4) Anglo-Saxon eásterne, adjective, English eastern, q. v.; (5) Anglo-Saxon eástweard, eásteweard, English eastward, q. v. These are all formed from an orig. Teutonic *aus-t-a- or *aus-t-os-, the dawn, = Latin aurōra for *ausōsa, the dawn (see aurora), = Greek ἠώς, Attic εἢως, Doric ἀώς, Laconian ἀβώρ, Æolic αυ῎ως for *αυ῎σως (see Eos, Eocene), = Sanskrit ushas, the dawn, the personified Dawn, Aurora, = Lithuanian auszra, dawn (cf. auszta, the morning star, auszti, v., dawn, = Lettish aust, dawn); cf. Sanskrit usra, bright, pertaining to the dawn, as noun the dawn, = Anglo-Saxon *Eástra, dial. Eóstra, the goddess of dawn or rather of spring (the dawn of the year), later English Easter, q. v.; from √*us, Sanskritush, burn, = Latin urere, orig. *usere (perfect ussi, past participle ustus), burn (see adust, combust, etc.), = Greek αυ῎ειν, kindle, ευ῎ειν, singe, etc., a reduced form of √vas, grow bright, light up, dawn, whence also ult. Greek η῎μαρ, orig. *Ϝεσμαρ, day, ἒαρ, orig. *Ϝεσαρ, = Latin vēr, orig. *veser, spring (later ult. English vernal, etc.), Latin aurum, gold (later ult. English auric, aurous, or, etc.). Cf. west, north, south, and northeast, southeast.
  2. from Middle English est, eest, æst, east, from Anglo-Saxon eást, adverb: see east, n. and a.
  3. from east, n. and adv.
 

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