inland

comparative more inland · superlative most inland

1. Within the land; relatively remote from the ocean or from open water; interior.

   an inland town

   4 more examples

   In this wide Inland ſea, that hight by name / The Idle lake, my wandring ſhip I row, […]

   1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto VI”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 10, page 259

   So doth the greater glory dim the less: A substitute shines brightly as a king Unto the king be by, and then his state Empties itself, as doth an inland brook Into the main of waters.

   c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i]

   Brutes […] / Ruminate heedleſs of the ſcene outſpread / Beneath, beyond, and ſtretching far away / From inland regions to the diſtant main.

   1785, William Cowper, “Book V. The Winter Morning Walk.”, in The Task, a Poem, […], London: […] J[oseph] Johnson; […], →OCLC, page 221

   Happy he who, like Ulysses, has made an adventurous voyage; and there is no such sea for adventurous voyages as the Mediterranean—the inland sea which the ancients looked upon as so vast and so full of wonders.

   1904–1906, Joseph Conrad, “The Nursery of the Craft”, in The Mirror of the Sea, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.; London: Harper & Brothers, published October 1906, →OCLC, pages 254–255

   Antonyms: coastal, seaside, inlying

2. Limited to the land, or to inland routes; not passing on, or over, the sea.

   inland commerce

   2 more examples

   inland navigation

   inland transportation

3. Confined to one country or state; domestic; not foreign.

   an inland bill of exchange

4. archaicOf a sophisticated background, especially as relates to a royal court or national capital.

   inland bred

   2 more examples

   You touch'd my vein at first: the thorny point of bare distress hath ta'en from me the show of smooth civility; yet am I inland bred, and know some nurture.

   c. 1598–1600 (date written), William Shakespeare, “As You Like It”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene vii]

   I have been told so of many; but indeed an old religious uncle of mine taught me to speak, who was in his youth an inland man; one that knew courtship too well, for there he fell in love.

   c. 1598–1600 (date written), William Shakespeare, “As You Like It”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii]

plural inlands

1. The interior part of a country.

   a wall sufficient to defend Our inland from the pilfering borderers.

   1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii]

comparative more inland · superlative most inland

1. Into, or towards, the interior of the land, away from the coast.

   The greatest waves of population have rolled inland from the east.

   1836, Sharon Turner, The History of England […]

   1 more example

   He heard much that did not interest him—of the journey inland, of the face of the country, the surprising weather, the great work of irrigation and the other impressive wonders of man and nature. These things could be got from books […]

   1923, Ernest Bramah [pseudonym; Ernest Brammah Smith], “(please specify the page)”, in The Eyes of Max Carrados, London: Grant Richards, →OCLC