estuary

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At the estuary are a number of small islets well suited for the emplacement of powerful guns.

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Definitions (9)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. noun The part of the wide lower course of a river where its current is met by the tides.
  2. noun An arm of the sea that extends inland to meet the mouth of a river.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (4)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (2)

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Examples (50)

  • At the estuary are a number of small islets well suited for the emplacement of powerful guns. —  A History of the United States
  • In Indian and Colonial times this estuary was the part of the river that counted most for men, because of the bounty that came from its waters, the fitness of its shores for farming, and its navigability for boats and ships in a region where land travel was laborious and whose colonists depended on commerce with a European homeland. —  The Nation's River A report on the Potomac from the U.S. Department of the Interior
  • There is, however, one true river of some size, the Hlaing, which rises near Prome, flows southwards and meets the Pegu river and the Pazundaung creek near Rangoon, and thus forms the estuary which is known as the Rangoon river and constitutes the harbour of Rangoon. —  Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 4, Part 4 "Bulgaria" to "Calgary"
  • An occasional Malay is met acting as a police officer, but it is evident that such work does not appeal to the native of the Straits Settlements On our return to the hotel we crossed a large estuary which is spanned by several bridges. —  The Critic in the Orient
  • At a much greater distance--for the estuary is here very wide--the line of the English coast was seen on the verge of the water, resembling one of those fog-banks on which mariners are said to gaze, uncertain whether it be land or atmospherical delusion We shall be undisturbed for some hours,' said Mr. Geddes; 'they will not come down upon us: till the state of the tide permits them to destroy the tide-nets. —  Redgauntlet
 

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Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Latin aestuārium, from aestus, tide, surge, heat.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. Formerly also æstuary; from Latin æstuarium, a part of the sea-coast which during the flood-tide is overflowed but at the ebb-tide is left covered with mud, a channel extending inlaud from the sea, an air-hole, in Middle Latin also a hot bathing-room, from æstus (æstu-), the swell of the sea, the surge, the tide, also glowing heat, fire, etc.: see estive.
 

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/ˈɛstʃjuəri/
by American Heritage

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