sand

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. Small loose grains of worn or disintegrated rock.
2. n. Geology A sedimentary material, finer than a granule and coarser than silt, with grains between 0.06 and 2.0 millimeters in diameter.
3. n. A tract of land covered with sand, as a beach or desert. Often used in the plural.
4. n. The loose, granular, gritty particles in an hourglass.
5. n. Moments of allotted time or duration: "The sands are numb'red that makes up my life” ( Shakespeare).
6. n. Slang Courage; stamina; perseverance: "She had more sand in her than any girl I ever see; in my opinion she was just full of sand” ( Mark Twain).
7. n. A light grayish brown to yellowish gray.
8. v. To sprinkle or cover with or as if with sand.
9. v. To polish or scrape with sand or sandpaper.
10. v. To mix with sand.
11. v. To fill up (a harbor) with sand.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. Water-worn detritus, finer than that to which the name gravel would ordinarily be applied: but the line between sand and gravel cannot be distinctly drawn, and they frequently occur intermingled. Sand consists usually of the debris of crystalline rocks, and quartz very commonly predominates in it, since this mineral is very little liable to chemical change or decomposition. In regions of exclusively calcareous rocks there is rarely any considerable amount of what can be properly called sand, finely comminuted calcareous materials being extremely liable to become reconsolidated. Sand occurs in every stage of wear, from that in which the particles have sharp edges, showing that they have been derived from the recent breaking up of granitic and other silicious rocks, to that in which the fragments are thoroughly rounded, showing that they have been rubbed against one another during a great length of time. Sand, when consolidated by pressure or held together by some cement, becomes sandstone; and a large part of the material forming the series of stratified rocks is sandstone.
2. n. A tract or region composed principally of sand, like the deserts of Arabia; or a tract of sand exposed by the ebb of the tide: as, the Libyan Sands; the Solway sands.
3. n. Any mass of small hard particles: as, the sand of an hour-glass; sand used in blotting.
4. n. In founding, a mixture of sand, clay, and other materials used in making molds for casting metals. It is distinguished according to different qualities, etc., and is therefore known by specific names: as, core-sand, green sand, old sand, etc.
5. n. Sandstone: so used in the Pennsylvania petroleum region, where the various beds of petroliferous sandstone are called oil-sands, and designated as first, second, third, etc., in the order in which they are struck in the borings. Similarly, the gas-bearing sandstones are called gas-sands.
6. n. plural The moments, minutes, or small portions of time; lifetime; allotted period of life: in allusion to the sand in the hour-glass used for measuring time.
7. n. Force of character; stamina; grit; endurance; pluck.
8. To sprinkle with sand; specifically, to powder with sand, as a freshly painted surface in order to make it resemble stone, or fresh writing to keep it from blotting.
9. To add sand to: as, to sand sugar.
10. To drive upon a sand-bank.
11. n. A message; a mission; an embassy.

Wiktionary

1. n. Rock that is ground more finely than gravel, but is not as fine as silt (more formally, see grain sizes chart), forming beaches and deserts and also used in construction. Sand may be blown around by the wind; gravel is too heavy, and silt (on beaches) does not usually have time to dry out between tides.
2. n. a beach or other expanse of sand.
3. n. Personal courage (used before or around 1920s)
4. n. A light beige colour, like that of typical sand.
5. adj. Of a light beige colour, like that of typical sand.
6. v. To abrade the surface of (something) with sand or sandpaper in order to smooth or clean it.
7. v. To cover with sand.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. Fine particles of stone, esp. of siliceous stone, but not reduced to dust; comminuted stone in the form of loose grains, which are not coherent when wet.
2. n. A single particle of such stone.
3. n. The sand in the hourglass; hence, a moment or interval of time; the term or extent of one's life.
4. n. Tracts of land consisting of sand, like the deserts of Arabia and Africa; also, extensive tracts of sand exposed by the ebb of the tide.
5. n. Courage; pluck; grit.
6. v. To sprinkle or cover with sand.
7. v. To drive upon the sand.
8. v. To bury (oysters) beneath drifting sand or mud.
9. v. To mix with sand for purposes of fraud.

WordNet 3.0

1. v. rub with sandpaper
2. n. a loose material consisting of grains of rock or coral
3. n. fortitude and determination
4. n. French writer known for works concerning women's rights and independence (1804-1876)