beach

plural beaches

1. The shore of a body of water, especially when sandy or pebbly.

   Pretty soon I struck into a sort of path[…]. It twisted and turned,[…]and opened out into a big clear space like a lawn. And, back of the lawn, was a big, old-fashioned house, with piazzas stretching in front of it, and all blazing with lights. 'Twas the house I'd seen the roof of from the beach.

   1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter I, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC

2. A horizontal strip of land, usually sandy, adjoining water.

   Up and down, the beach lay empty for miles.

   1988, Robert Ferro, Second Son

   Synonyms: backshore, sand, strand

3. KentUKdialectalSussexThe loose pebbles of the seashore, especially worn by waves; shingle.
4. euphemistichobbiesSynonym of gravel trap.

   Synonyms: gravel trap

5. hobbiesA dry, dusty pitch or situation, as though playing on sand.

   I never realised Lincoln was a seaside town. BRIAN LAWS Scunthorpe manager, after losing on a liberally sanded beach of a pitch

   2008, Phil Shaw, The Book of Football Quotations, page 415

   1 more example

   The series was brought to an ironic conclusion when England became hoist by their own petard, as they lost the deciding final Test on a 'beach' of a wicket. Neither side batted well.

   2012, Tim Quelch, Bent Arms & Dodgy Wickets

6. euphemisticEuphemistic form of bitch (taboo swear word).

   That beach should be punished!

present singular third person beaches · participle present beaching · participle past beached · past beached

1. intransitiveTo run aground on a beach.

   When we finally beached, the land was scarcely less wet than the sea.

   1941, Emily Carr, “Salt Water”, in Klee Wyck

2. transitiveTo run (something) aground on a beach.

   Great Aías led twelve ships from Sálamis and beached them where Athenians formed for battle.

   1974, Homer, translated by Robert Fitzgerald, Iliad, Doubleday, Book Two, lines 530-31, p. 53

   1 more example

   It seems that some honest mariners of Dover, or Sandwich, or some one of the Cinque Ports, had after a hard chase succeeded in killing and beaching a fine whale which they had originally descried afar off from the shore.

   1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “Chapter 90”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC

3. To run into an obstacle or rough or soft ground, so that the floor of the vehicle rests on the ground and the wheels cannot gain traction.

plural Beachs · plural Beaches

1. countableuncountableA surname.

   “The commissioner does not affect the numbers,’’ Beach said. “They don’t collect the data. They don’t massage the data. They don’t organize it.”

   2025 August 13, Christopher Rugaber and Josh Boak, “Trump’s nominee to oversee jobs and inflation data faces shower of criticism”, in AP News, archived from the original on 15 Aug 2025

   1. countableuncountableA surname from English
   2. countableuncountableA surname from landforms
   3. countableuncountableA surname from German
2. A placename
   1. countableuncountableA hamlet in Bitton parish, South Gloucestershire district, Gloucestershire, England, United Kingdom (OS grid ref ST7070).
   2. countableuncountableAn unincorporated community in Ware County, Georgia.
   3. countableuncountableAn unincorporated community in Webster County, Missouri.
   4. countableuncountableA small city, the county seat of Golden Valley County, North Dakota.
   5. countableuncountableAn unincorporated community on Lummi Island, Whatcom County, Washington.