gulf

The Sailor's Word-Book

, or gulph.


A capacious bay, and sometimes taking the name of a sea when it is very extensive; such are the Euxine or Black Sea, otherwise called the Gulf of Constantinople; the Adriatic Sea, called also the Gulf of Venice; the Mediterranean is itself a prodigious specimen. A gulf is, strictly speaking, distinguished from a sea in being smaller, and from a bay in being larger and deeper than it is broad. It is observed that the sea is always most dangerous near gulfs, from the currents being penned up by the shores.

Related Words

  • Gulf

    ·noun That which swallows; the gullet. II. Gulf ·noun A large deposit of ore in a lode. III. Gulf ...

    Webster's Dictionary of the English Language

  • bay-gulf

    A branch of the sea, of which the entrance is the widest part, as contradistinguished from the strai...

    The Sailor's Word-Book

  • gulf-stream

    Is especially referable to that of Mexico, the waters of which flow in a warm stream at various velo...

    The Sailor's Word-Book

  • gulf-weed

    The Fucus natans, considered to belong to the Gulf Stream, and found floating in the Sargasso Sea in...

    The Sailor's Word-Book

  • strait gulf

    An arm of the sea running into the land through a narrow entrance channel, as the Gulf of Venice. Th...

    The Sailor's Word-Book

  • wedge-shaped gulf

    One which is wide at its entrance, and gradually narrows towards its termination, as that of Califor...

    The Sailor's Word-Book

  • fetch of a gulf

    The whole stretch from head to head, or point to point. ...

    The Sailor's Word-Book