Forms: 6 estuarie, (7 estuar), 6– estuary; also ÆSTUARY. [ad. L. æstuāri-um, prop. adj. ‘tidal,’ hence a tidal marsh or opening, f. æstus heat, boiling, bubbling, tide.]

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  1.  gen. A tidal opening, an inlet or creek through which the tide enters; an arm of the sea indenting the land. rare in mod. use.

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1538.  Leland, Itin., V. 29. A greate Sande with a shorte Estuary into the Lande.

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1665.  Manley, Grotius’ Low-C. Warrs, 219. Two Castles … sufficiently defended … by the Estuary of the Sea.

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1782.  W. Gilpin, Wye (1789), 128. The finest estuary [Cardiff] we had seen in Wales.

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1825.  Heber, Jrnl. (1828), II. xxi. 389. The country resembled extremely a large æstuary, but studded with rocky islands.

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1839.  Stonehouse, Axholme, 53. The word Fleet means an estuary or arm of the sea.

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1880.  Haughton, Phys. Geog., v. 238. The La Plata … is rather an estuary of the sea than a river.

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  2.  spec. The tidal mouth of a great river, where the tide meets the current of fresh water.

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15[?].  Stow, Annales (1615), 3. The Riuer of Taus … breaketh into the German sea, and at ye mouth forceth great estuars or armes of the sea.

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1791.  W. Gilpin, Forest Scenery, II. 300 (T.). Among the solitary birds, which frequent the estuaries of rivers.

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1798.  H. Skrine, Tours Wales, 6 (T.). The river swells into a great æstuary, and in sight forms the Bristol channel.

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1830.  Lyell, Princ. Geol., I. 265. Estuaries (a term which we confine to inlets entered both by rivers and tides of the sea).

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1853.  Phillips, Rivers Yorksh., i. 1. Estuaries worthy of such tributaries.

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1878.  Huxley, Physiogr., 211. Upraised deposits of silt … skirt the estuary of the Clyde.

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  † 3.  A place where liquid boils up. Obs.

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1684.  Boyle, Wks. (1772), IV. 799. Whether … over the æstuary … there arise any visible mineral fumes.

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  transf.  1825.  New Monthly Mag., XVI. 50. Bacon was accustomed to take a draught of March-beer towards bedtime, to settle this æstuary of his mind.

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  † 4.  A vapor-bath. Obs.

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1657.  Tomlinson, Renou’s Disp., 189. Chirurgions have invented a certain Æstuary … like a bird-cage.

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1706.  Phillips, Æstuary.

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  5.  attrib. (sometimes quasi-adj. = ESTUARINE).

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1832.  Lyell, Princ. Geol., II. 280. Estuary shells are more frequently liable … to be intermixed with the exuviæ of pelagic tribes.

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1845.  Darwin, Voy. Nat., vii. (1852), 129. My reasons for considering the Pampæan formation to be an estuary deposit were [etc.].

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1884.  Daily News, 7 Oct., 6/1. While the estuary fishermen have reaped a remunerative harvest, the rod men have had little or no fishing.

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