Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. See gulfweed.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. Same as gulf-weed. The Sargasso Sea is a region occupying the interior of the great gyration of the Gulf Stream in the North Atlantic, so named from the abundance in it of this weed (Sargassum bacciferum), which in some parts is so dense as to be a serious hindrance to navigation. It covers a large part of the space beween the 16th and 38th parallels of north latitude, and the seaweed is most dense between the 30th and 50th meridians. By extension the name is sometimes used with reference to other less important areas of floating seaweed. See
Sargassum .
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. The gulf weed. See under gulf.
WordNet 3.0
- n. brown algae with rounded bladders forming dense floating masses in tropical Atlantic waters as in the Sargasso Sea
Etymologies
- Portuguese sargaço.
Examples
“These eddies or stagnant parts are called sargasso seas.”
“An extensive tract of water is this, inclosed by the warm current of the Gulf Stream, and thickly covered with the wrack, called by the Spaniards "sargasso," the abundance of which so seriously impeded the progress of Columbus's vessel on his first voyage.”
“An extensive tract of water is this, enclosed by the warm current of the Gulf Stream, and thickly covered with the wrack, called by the Spaniards "sargasso," the abundance of which so seriously impeded the progress of Columbus's vessels on his first voyage across the ocean.”
The Survivors of the Chancellor, diary of J.R. Kazallon, passenger
“Apparently Anetene decided the sargasso was a big enough booby trap all by itself. ”
“I was curious as I had never heard of anything called "Sargasso Planet", SF or otherwise (sargasso sea yes, planet, no).”
“You and your bigfoot crap: I wrote a story published in Biker 10 years ago about bikers vs. a Bigfoot and I never see THAT bandied about this site like a cheap tawdry bimbo like I do YOUR Bigfoot sargasso coils of suffocating morasses of life-choking monotony book-cover exhaustions.”
“That looked small next to the green one, ten feet high, twenty across, bigger than any SUV lining the street—green and white, something nautical about it, like weeds flung across the wide sargasso sea—except sylvan.”
“But at Kennedy, there was a sargasso sea of low-class Urkels to endure while picking up your luggage.”
Time to Reboot My Privilege : Edward Champion’s Reluctant Habits
“All around floated the sargasso beds, clogging her bows with their long snaky coils of weed; and still he tried to sail, and tried to fancy that he was sailing, till the sun went down and all was utter dark.”
Lists
‘sargasso’ hasn't been added to any lists yet.
chained_bear See usage note on copepod.
I knew about the Sargasso Sea, but didn't know this word also denotes an organism. Feb 20, 2008