Forms: 1 strand, 2–6 strande, 3–6 stronde, 3–8 strond, (3 streunde, 6 strounde), 3– strand. [OE. strand (? neat.) = OFris. strônd (WFris. strân, straun, NFris. strön, strunn), MLG. strant (strand-) masc. (whence Du. strand neut., mod.G. strand masc.), ON. strǫnd (strand-) fem., border, edge, coast (Sw., Da. strand).]
1. The land bordering a sea, lake or † river; in a more restricted sense, that part of a shore that lies between the tide-marks; sometimes used vaguely for coast, shore. Cf. SEA-STRAND. Now poet., arch. or dial.
c. 1000. Ags. Gosp., Matt xiii. 48. Þa hi þa þat nett uppatuʓon & sæton be þam strande. Ibid., John xxi. 4. Witodlice on ærne merʓen se hælend stod on þam strande.
a. 1066. Charter of Eadweard, in Kemble, Cod. Dipl., IV. 221. Ic ciðe eow ðæt Urk min huskarl habbe his strand eall, forneʓen hys aʓen land … and eall ðæt to his strande ʓedryuen hys, be minum fullan bebode.
c. 1200. Ormin, 11155. Forr Crist, son summ he fullhtnedd wass & stiȝhenn upp o strande.
c. 1205. Lay., 17586. Þer heo nomen hauene … scipen eoden a þat strond, cnihtes eoden a þat lond.
c. 1250. Gen. & Ex., 2717. And moyses druȝ him to ðe strond, And stalle he dalf him ðe sond.
c. 1290. Mary Magd., 471, in S. Eng. Leg., 475. Þe prince stap out of þe schipe:… Opon þe stronde he ȝaf a lupe.
c. 1330. R. Brunne, Chron. Wace (Rolls), 14049. Seuen hundred schipe lyn by þe stronde.
c. 1384. Chaucer, H. Fame, 148. The Armes and also the man That first came … Vnto the strondes of Lauyne.
1390. Gower, Conf., II. 232. Thei ben comen sauf to londe, Wher thei gon out upon the stronde Into the Burgh.
c. 1430. Lydg., Min. Poems (Percy Soc.), 50. A lowe ground ebbe was fast by the strond, That no maryner durst take on hond To cast an anker.
1544. Betham, Precepts War, I. lii. D j b. Wherby other shyppes can not well arryue at anye strounde, ne yet go out of the hauen.
1593. Peele, Honour of Garter, 15. The channel that divides The Frenchmen’s strond fro Britain’s fishy towns.
c. 1595. Donne, Sat., II. 78. Shortly (as the sea) hee will compasse all our land; From Scots, to Wight; from Mount, to Dover strand.
1632. J. Hayward, trans. Biondi’s Eromena, 26. They walked along the strond, till they came to his Barke.
1681. Dryden, Abs. & Achit., I. 272. The Joyful People throng’d to see him Land, Cov’ring the Beach and blackning all the Strand.
1718. Prior, Alma, II. 535. The Strand, which compasses fair Albion’s Land.
1759. Ann. Reg., 36/1. Quebec … consists of an upper and lower town, the lower … is built upon a strand, at the foot of a lofty rock.
1796. H. Hunter, trans. St.-Pierre’s Stud. Nat. (1799), II. 155. James Cartier and Champlain represent the strands of the lakes of North-America as shaded by stately walnut-trees.
1817. Shelley, Rev. Islam, I. xvi. On the bare strand Upon the sea-mark a small boat did wait.
1867. M. Arnold, Dover Beach, 9, in New Poems, 112.
| Listen! you hear the grating roar | |
| Of pebbles which the waves suck back, and fling, | |
| At their return, up the high strand. |
1871. Couch, Polperro, ii. 32. The next object of notice … is the beach, or ‘strand,’ inside the old quay.
1911. E. Beveridge, North Uist, vi. 132. Six [of the island-forts] are easily accessible over the strand at ebb-tide.
fig. 1649. Jer. Taylor, Gt. Exemp., Pref. ¶ 25. God brought Moses law into the world to be as a strand to the inundation of impiety.
† b. in certain rhyming and alliterative phrases used in charters. Obs.
11[?]. Charter of Eadweard (A.D. 1066), in Kemble, Cod. Dipl., IV. 192. Ic nelle … ðat dær any man any onsting habbe on any þ[i]ngen oðe on any timen be strande ne bi lande buton [etc.].
1155. Charter Hen. II., in Anglia, VII. 220. Saca & Socne, on strande & on Streame, on wudan & on feldan, tolles & theames, grithbriches & hamsocne & forstalles & infangenes thiafes & fleamene frimtha ofer heore aȝene men.
1208. Rot. Chart. (1837), 184/1. Habeant … omnia predicta … cum soka et saca … et cum aliis consuetudinibus … warwagio suo bilaunde & bistraunde [etc.].
[1706. Phillips (ed. Kersey), Strand and Stream, an Expression formerly us’d for an immunity or freedom from Custom, and all Impositions upon Goods or Vessels by Land or by Water.]
† c. A quay, wharf or landing-place by the side of navigable water. Obs.
Den and strand: see DENE sb.2 2.
1205. Rot. Chart. (1837), 153/1. Habeant [barones de Hastinges] strand [printed srand] & dene apud Gernemue.
1577–87. Holinshed, Chron., III. 1097/1. Sir Thomas Wiat hauing with him foureteene ensignes,… marched to Detford strand, eight miles from Detford.
1600. J. Pory, trans. Leo’s Africa, VIII. 301. A most impregnable castle, which standeth vpon the strand or wharfe of the port.
c. 1600. in T. Brown, Misc. Aulica (1702), 254. If any that hath a House or Land adjoining do make a Strand, Stairs, or such like, they pay forthwith Rent to the City of London.
1637. Milton, Comus, 876. By Leucothea’s lovely hands, And her son [sc. Portunus] that rules the strands.
1707. Lond. Gaz., No. 4397/3. He was … one of the Elder Brothers of Trinity-House of Deptford-Strond.
1859. Bartlett, Dict. Amer. (ed. 2), 455. The Dutch on the Hudson River apply the term to a landing-place; as, the strand at Kingston.
d. The Strand: the name of a street in London; originally so called as occupying, with the gardens belonging to the houses, the ‘strand’ or shore of the Thames between the cities of London and Westminster.
1246. Misc. Rolls, Chancery, Bd. 3 No. 2 m. 1. Domos … extra muros Ciuitatis nostre London, in vico qui vocatur le Straunde.
1601. F. Godwin, Bps. of Eng., 262. Walter de Langton … built also the pallace by the Strond at London.
1613. Shaks., Hen. VIII., V. iv. 55. [She] cryed out Clubbes, when I might see from farre, some forty Truncheoners draw to her succour, which were the hope o’ th’ Strond where she was quartered.
1691. Wood, Ath. Oxon., II. 226. James Heath [was] Son of Rob. Heath the Kings Cutler, living in the Strand leading from London to Westminster.
1729. Pope, Dunc., II. 28. Where the tall may-pole once o’er-look’d the Strand.
1790. Pennant, London, 126–7. I shall resume my account at the opening of the Strand into Charing-Cross, by observing, that in the year 1353, that fine street the Strand was an open highway, with here and there a great man’s house, with gardens to the water-side.
1823. Byron, Island, II. xix. But less grand, Though not less loved, in Wapping or the Strand.
e. Used vaguely (like SHORE sb.1 1 c) for country, region, esp. a foreign country. Chiefly poet.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Prol., 13. Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages And Palmeres for to seken straunge strondes.
c. 1400. Roland & Otuel, 1215. An hundrethe knyghtes of Turkeye Bare his Mawmettes hym by And paste ouer that strande.
c. 1590. Greene, Fr. Bacon (1594 facs.), F 3. Drugges … Found in the wealthy strond of Affrica.
1704. Cobb, Poems (1709), 57. Sail, Happy Prince, to that expecting Strand Where wealthy Tagus rowls his golden Sand.
1821. Shelley, Hellas, 1028. Let Freedom and Peace flee far To a sunnier strand.
¶ 2. Used for SHORE sb.4 Obs. (? nonce-use.)
1635. B. Jonson, Epigr. To a Friend, 13. Seek out some hungry painter, that … Will well design thee to be view’d by all, That sit upon the common draught or strand [rhyme brand].
3. attrib. and Comb., as strand bank, bird, bush, -plant; † strand boat, a shore boat; strand fishery, a coast fishery pursued from the shore (Webster, Suppl., 1902); † strand hedge Isle of Man, a fence on the sea shore; strand ice (see quot.); strand knife Whaling, a knife for cutting blubber; strand-line Geol. (see quot.); strand-nut (see quot.); † strand plat, the beach or sea-shore; † strandward in advb. phr. to (the) strandward, in the direction of the beach or sea-shore.
1881. A. Leslie, trans. Nordenskiöld’s Voy. Vega, II. xiv. 225. At Nunamo the *strand-bank was gay with an exceedingly rich magnificence of colour.
1755. Gentl. Mag., XXV. 319. Among other birds in this country [Norway] are some that haunt the coast … called *strand birds.
1860. Wraxall, Life in Sea, iii. 49. The Strand Birds, which live on the verge of the ocean, and on the beach deserted by the tide.
1670. Capt. J. Smith, Eng. Improv. Reviv’d, 268. To carry on this great Trade, they [the Hollanders] have 700 *Strand-boates.
1863. W. C. Baldwin, Afr. Hunting, vii. 282. The inyala is only to be met with in the *strand bush along the coast.
1723. in H. Stowell, Life Wilson, App. I. (1819), 337. [Isle of Man] By the governor’s granting licence to inclose the lands of several persons under their *strand hedges.
1897. trans. Nansen’s Farthest North, II. vii. 346. Close to our den there was an opening in the *strand-ice. Note, Ice which is frozen fast to the bottom, and is therefore left lying like an icy base along the shore.
1820. Scoresby, Acc. Arctic Reg., II. 299. Process of Flensing…. The blubber … is received upon deck by the boat-steerers and line-managers: the former with *strand-knives divide it into portable cubical, or oblong pieces.
1910. Encycl. Brit., XI. 658/2. Proof of recent emergence of land is supplied by what are called ‘raised beaches’ or *‘strand-lines,’ that is, lines of former shores marked by sheets of littoral deposits, or platforms cut by shore-waves in rock.
1860. J. F. Campbell, Tales W. Highl., I. Introd. 9. On the stormy coasts of the Hebrides,… fisherinen … find … objects, somewhat like flat chestnuts … which they call … *strand-nuts.
1906. Daily Chron., 13 Aug., 3/2. Most of the Hawaiian *strand-plants that are dispersed by the currents are found in America.
1582. Stanyhurst, Æneis, II. (Arb.), 78. Father Anchises his palms from *strond plat inhauncing On gods heunlye cryeth.
c. 1400. Beryn, 3138. So, walkyng to the *Strondward, wee bargeynyd by the wey.
1582. Stanyhurst, Æneis, II. (Arb.), 56. Soom run to vessels too strondward swiftlye retyring.
b. In the names of birds, beasts, etc., that frequent the shores of seas, lakes or estuaries, as strand-plover, strand-runner (see quots.; cf. STRANDLOOPER 2); ǁ strand-wolf [Du.], the name given in S. Africa to the striped hyena (Hyæna striata).
1772. Rutty, Nat. Hist. Dublin, I. 324. The *Strand Plover, by some called, the Stone Plover.
1885. Swainson, Prov. Names Birds, 181. Grey plover (Squatarola helvetica)…. Strand plover (Cork).
1706. Phillips (ed. Kersey), *Strand-Runner, a Bird of the bigness of a Lark, with a four-square Bill resembling a Rasp, which runs on the Rocks of Spitsberg and feeds on Worms.
1826. A. Smith, Catal. S. Afr. Mus., I. 14. Striped Hyæna of the English. *Strand Wolf of the Dutch.
1881. Encycl. Brit., XII. 420/2. If the strand wolf (Hyæna villosa) of the Cape colonists is only a variety of this species [Hyæna striata].
