Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adverb & adjective Toward or at the sea.
  • noun A seaward place or direction.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Directed toward the sea.
  • Fresh from the sea.
  • Toward the sea.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adverb Toward the sea.
  • adjective Directed or situated toward the sea.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Being in or facing the direction towards sea, as opposed to the direction to the land.
  • adverb In the direction of the sea, toward the sea.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective directed or situated away from inland regions and toward the sea or coast
  • adjective (of winds) coming from the land
  • noun the direction toward the sea
  • adverb in the direction of the sea
  • adjective (of winds) coming from the sea toward the land

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

sea +‎ -ward

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word seaward.

Examples

  • This was the battle -- to win seaward against the Creep of the shoreward hastening sea.

    CHAPTER VI 2010

  • This was the battle -- to win seaward against the Creep of the shoreward hastening sea.

    Chapter 6 1913

  • The sea became covered in the masses of snow blown seaward from the land by the gale; then the violence of the gale abated so that on February as we left our companions on the bleak shores of Cape Royds and steered for sunny New Zealand.

    With Shackleton to the Antarctic 1910

  • Right before this towne from the seaward is a banke of mouing sand, which gathereth and increaseth with the Western winds, in such sort, that, according to an olde prophesie among them, this banke is like to swallow vp and ouerwhelme the towne: for euery yere it increaseth and eateth vp many gardens, although they vse all policy to diminish the same, and to make it firme ground.

    The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques and Discoveries of the English Nation 2003

  • 'Thereupon, so soon as ocean may be trusted, and the winds leave the seas in quiet, and the soft whispering south wind calls seaward, my comrades launch their ships and crowd the shores.

    The Aeneid of Virgil 70 BC-19 BC Virgil

  • (He turns to the harbor and calls seaward) Ho there, boatman!

    Caesar and Cleopatra George Bernard Shaw 1903

  • To the seaward, that is from the smaller harbour westwards, Sebastopol and its approaches were thoroughly fortified.

    A History of Modern Europe, 1792-1878 Charles Alan Fyffe 1868

  • That very accessibility from seaward, which is her weak point in war time, is her strength in time of peace.

    Border and Bastille 1851

  • Right before this towne from the seaward is a banke of mouing sand, which gathereth and increaseth with the

    The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques and Discoveries of the English Nation — Volume 10 Asia, Part III Richard Hakluyt 1584

  • They were close enough to have heard, but ignored him they turned away and lay on their boards, stroking seaward.

    Bad Dad Alex Austin 2011

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • "The island of Tikopia is an example of another sort of system which is neither universal, egocentric, nor directed toward a base point, but is tied to a particular edge in the landscape. The island is small enough so that one is rarely out of sight or sound of the sea, and the islanders use the expressions inland or seaward for all kinds of spatial reference.... Firth reports overhearing one man say to another: 'There is a spot of mud on your seaward cheek.'" - Quoted in The Image of the City by Kevin Lynch. MIT Press (1960), p. 129.

    January 3, 2007