beach

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beach

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From Middle English bache, bæcche (“bank, sandbank”), from Old English beċe (“beck, brook, stream”), from Proto-West Germanic *baki, from Proto-Germanic *bakiz (“brook”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeg- (“flowing water”).

Cognate with Dutch beek (“brook, stream”), German Bach (“brook, stream”), Swedish bäck (“stream, brook, creek”). More at batch, beck.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /biːt͡ʃ/

• Audio (UK):

  (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /bit͡ʃ/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iːtʃ
• Homophone: beech

beach (plural beaches)

1. The shore of a body of water, especially when sandy or pebbly.
   • 1913, Joseph C Lincoln, chapter I, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y., London: D Appleton and Company, →OCLC:

     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.

2. A horizontal strip of land, usually sandy, adjoining water.
   • 1988, Robert Ferro, Second Son:

     Up and down, the beach lay empty for miles.

3. (UK dialectal, Sussex, Kent) The loose pebbles of the seashore, especially worn by waves; shingle.
4. (motor racing, euphemistic) Synonym of gravel trap
5. (sports) A dry, dusty pitch or situation, as though playing on sand.
   • 2008, Phil Shaw, The Book of Football Quotations, page 415:

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

   • 2012, Tim Quelch, Bent Arms & Dodgy Wickets:

     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.

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

   That beach should be punished!

• → Japanese: ビーチ
• → Punjabi: ਬੀਚ (bīc)
• → Zulu: ibhishi

beach (third-person singular simple present beaches, present participle beaching, simple past and past participle beached)

1. (intransitive) To run aground on a beach.
   • 1941, Emily Carr, “Salt Water”, in Klee Wyck:

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

2. (transitive) To run (something) aground on a beach.
   • 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:

     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.

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

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

3. (of a vehicle) 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.

• Bache, bache

Borrowed from English beach.

• IPA^(key): /bitʃ/

beach m (plural beachs)

1. (Congo) port where goods and passengers embark and debark
   • 2006 March 14, Tshiala David, “Baisse du trafic au beach Ngobila entre Kinshasa et Brazzaville”, in Le Potentiel:

     C’est ainsi qu’elles ont décidé d’embarquer leurs marchandises dans des pirogues motorisés qui desservent les beachs privés entre les deux rives du fleuve Congo.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   • 2007, Jean-Alexis M'Foutou, La langue française au Congo-Brazzaville:

     Le Beach de Brazzaville hier réputé lieu de violence, de viols et de braquages, présent aujourd’hui des conditions de sécurité plutôt rassurantes.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

From Old Irish bech, from Proto-Celtic *beko-, *bikos (compare Middle Welsh beg-egyr, byg-egyr (“drone”)), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰik-, *bʰoyk- (compare Latin fūcus and, perhaps, Proto-Slavic *bьčela), enlargement of *bʰey- (compare Welsh by-daf (“beehive”), English bee).

• IPA^(key): /bʲax/

beach f (genitive singular beiche, nominative plural beacha)

1. bee (insect)

• Ó Dónaill, Niall (1977) “beach”, in Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla, Dublin: An Gúm, →ISBN
• Gregory Toner, Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, Dagmar Wodtko, editors (2019), “bech”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language

From Old Irish bech, from Proto-Celtic *beko-, *bikos, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰik-, *bʰoik-, enlargement of *bʰī-, *bʰei-.

• IPA^(key): /pɛx/

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beach m (genitive singular beacha, plural beachan)

1. bee

   Synonym: seillean

2. beehive
3. wasp

   Synonym: speach

• Edward Dwelly (1911) “beach”, in Faclair Gàidhlig gu Beurla le Dealbhan [The Illustrated Gaelic–English Dictionary]‎, 10th edition, Edinburgh: Birlinn Limited, →ISBN
• MacBain, Alexander, Mackay, Eneas (1911) “beach”, in An Etymological Dictionary of the Gaelic Language‎, Stirling, →ISBN, page 31
• Gregory Toner, Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, Dagmar Wodtko, editors (2019), “bech”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language