gulf

Tweet

noun

Definition of GULF

1

a part of a body of water that extends beyond the general shoreline <we dipped our feet in the warm waters of the gulf>

Synonyms arm, bay, bight, cove, creek [chiefly British], embayment, estuary, firth, fjord (also fiord), inlet, loch [Scottish]

Related Words harbor, port, road(s), roadstead; narrow, sound, strait; bayou; backwater, slough (also slew or slue)

2

an immeasurable depth or space <the great gulf of time and space that separates us from the first inhabitants of North America>

Synonyms abysm, chasm, deep, gulf, ocean

Related Words cleft, crevasse, crevice, fissure; cavern, hole, hollow, pit; breadth, expanse, extent, reach, spread, stretch; black hole, emptiness, nothingness, vacancy, vacuity, vacuum, void

3

a narrow opening between hillsides or mountains that can be used for passage <the gulf was too wide to cross, so we had to hike down into it and go through it>

Synonyms col, couloir, defile, flume, gap, gill [British], gorge, gulch, gulf, kloof [South African], linn [chiefly Scottish], notch, pass, ravine, saddle

Related Words abyss, chasm, cirque, cleft, crevasse, crevice, cwm [chiefly British], fissure; combe (also coombe or coomb) [British], dale, dell, glen, hollow, shut-in, vale, valley; basin, floodplain, kettle; arroyo, barranca (also barranco), coulee, draw, gully (also gulley), gutter, nullah, trench, trough, wadi, wash [West]

4

an open space in a barrier (as a wall or hedge) <a wide gulf in the defensive wall meant the city was in grave danger>

Synonyms breach, break, discontinuity, gulf, hiatus, hole, interstice, interval, opening, rent, rift, separation, void

Related Words chink, cleft, crack, cranny, crevice, fissure; notch, slit, slot, split; interspace, pore; abyss, aperture, cavity, chasm, gape, orifice; fracture, rupture, severance, sundering

5

water moving rapidly in a circle with a hollow in the center <the doomed ship was sucked into the gulf and consigned to Davy Jones's locker>

Synonyms gulf, maelstrom, vortex

Related Words tourbillion (or tourbillon); eddy, swirl, whirl