Main definitions of sea in English

: sea¹ SEA²

sea¹

noun

often the sea

1The expanse of salt water that covers most of the earth's surface and surrounds its land masses.
‘a ban on dumping radioactive wastes in the sea’
mass noun ‘rocky bays lapped by vivid blue sea’
as modifier ‘a sea view’
- ‘Sadly, the most easily-attainable sources for iodine are iodized salt and sea products, both of which can be taboo for pregnant women.’
- ‘For Rachel, the vastness of the sea brings comfort and reassurance - it's a constant, she says, in a constantly changing world, and its great expanse puts our problems into perspective.’
- ‘On Tybee Island, it was estimated that 43.82 acres of land would be lost to the sea.’
- ‘But the lure of the sea was too much and he joined the family as they trawled the beaches.’
- ‘And I immediately felt that inside me was this inland ocean with its population of one, this little sea mammal who was swimming around.’
- ‘They look for trilobites and fossilised sea creatures that are preserved in the stone along the path, easily spottable for amateur fossil hunters.’
- ‘Although, ironically, the lack of rain in recent years has made the problem worse, as winter flows can help flush sediments through the system and out to sea.’
- ‘New standards to help safeguard the welfare of animals transported by road and sea have been agreed at a major conference in Paris.’
- ‘The waves of the deep blue sea lapped softly at the shore.’
- ‘The jet started to rotate and face the open sea.’
- ‘Facing the dark open sea and silent of traffic, the village at night is a bubble of conviviality.’
- ‘I walked over to an east-facing balcony that overlooks the sea far below.’
- ‘The coastline is made up of various shades of gold set in a translucent turquoise sea.’
- ‘I looked down, and saw a small island in the middle of the turquoise sea.’
- ‘She breathed in and smelt the salty sea mixed with a sent of spring.’
- ‘They may remember the hot salty sea, their ancestral home, their first food.’
- ‘They swim in inland waters and lakes and never taste the salty sea.’
- ‘Whereas estimates of phytoplankton were initially too high, sea ice primary production estimates were initially too low.’
- ‘Yields of herring, sea urchin and rockfish also dropped dramatically during this season.’
- ‘Fiji's natural beauty white sand beaches, calm blue seas and nodding palm trees - remains a considerable pull.’
- ‘The lone wooden bench overlooking the vast sea beckoned her for company.’
ocean, the ocean, the waves
marine, ocean, oceanic
View synonyms
1. 1.1often in place names A roughly definable area of the sea.
  ‘the Black Sea’
  ‘The White Sea is an inlet of the Barents Sea on the northwest coast of Russia.’
  ‘Population genetic structures of the mackerel (Scomber scombrus) and chub mackerel (Scomber japonicus) were studied in the Mediterranean Sea.’
  ‘The goal of Save the North Sea project has been to reduce marine litter in the North Sea by changing the attitudes and behaviour of the people using the area.’
  ‘The audience could imagine the various routes leading to the edge of the Atlantic, Baltic and Mediterranean seas, as though we stood on a contour model with rivers and mountains.’
  ‘Between screens and building are long thin pools, symbolic of the three seas that surround Anatolia.’
2. 1.2in place names A large lake.
  ‘the Sea of Galilee’
  ‘Surely the simplest answer to the Dead Sea saltiness question is that it is really a lake which has no outlet.’
  ‘Once the world's fourth largest lake, the mighty Aral Sea is now in its death throes.’
  ‘Since the beginning of time, the Sea of Galilee has provided its fishermen with a plentiful source of sustenance.’
3. 1.3mass noun Used to refer to waves as opposed to calm sea.
  ‘there was still some sea running’
  ‘My walk is an inelegant bob… as if navigating a choppy sea.’
  ‘Using it first time in a crowded boat in a rough sea is a recipe for disaster.’
4. 1.4seasLarge waves.
  ‘the lifeboat met seas of thirty-five feet head-on’
  ‘At 6:30 the next morning, the seas were finally calm, and we pulled into the port of New York.’
  ‘Two Plexiglas dioramas of a boat on storm-tossed seas depicted Ernest Shackleton's ill-fated South Pole expedition of 1914.’
  ‘The artist's rising seas appear to be made of metal, stone, earth and glass, as well as water.’
  ‘However, the flagship was soon buffeted by very heavy seas, and began taking on water.’
  ‘Weather has also contributed to the seclusion and peculiarity of the Azores - stormy winter seas often prevent access to the smaller islands even by air for days at a time.’
  ‘While the seas can be savage, Graham loves the power of the ocean, the wildness of the local landscape and, in particular, the clarity of the light in this part of Scotland.’
  ‘He captures the seas as well as the tranquil horizons in his works.’
  ‘But the seas are beginning to part, and several paths forward are appearing before you.’
  ‘The farmer is left to trawl the seas, casting a net for profit in an export-driven market.’
  ‘The winds that night blew a full gale, and they piled up seas bigger than I could ever have hoped to handle.’
  ‘Fish were recorded thrown ashore in all tidal phases and there was little evidence rough seas were responsible.’
  wave, breaker, roller, comber, billow
  View synonyms
5. 1.5count noun A vast expanse or quantity of something.
  ‘she scanned the sea of faces for Stephen’
  ‘From freezers and hardening tunnels to compressors, evaporators and air handling units, a sea of chilling and freezing equipment is available to the dairy industry.’
  ‘We appreciate the flavorful food, recognizing in the candlelight the small, spicy leaves we snipped from a sea of greens that bright morning.’
  ‘Others will find a healthful haven among a sea of fortified yogurts and dairy beverages.’
  ‘As we approached the town, I was shocked to see a sea of red from horizon to horizon.’
  ‘From the steps of the Lincoln Memorial you saw a sea of humanity.’
  ‘It was great fun to watch a sea of red and white jogging around the town.’
  ‘The cheese then enters a sea of brine salt solution for cooling.’
  ‘Sioux County, Iowa, is a fertile, wall-to-wall sea of corn and soybeans.’
  ‘We just get new business parks surrounded by seas of cars and a trim of polite landscaping just like anywhere else.’
  ‘After wading around in difficult seas of theory and producing some charming and intriguing drawings, he made his name with the Jewish Museum in Berlin.’
  ‘Shot in Brazil at a dozen different games, this 8 1/2-minute video consists of seas of rapturous fans in the montage of color that Dean often features in his works.’
  ‘And in the past few weeks, something completely different has emerged: ballpoint on canvas, seas of tiny reptile-like scales, swirling away in the artist's characteristic fashion.’
  expanse, stretch, span, area, tract, sweep, blanket, sheet, carpet, mass
  View synonyms

Phrases

at sea

1Sailing on the sea.
‘he spends long hours at sea on a small catamaran’
- ‘‘Over time, the images evolved from ships in port to more elaborate ships at sea,’ said Freeman.’
- ‘‘Our goal is to provide the safest, highest quality U.S.-produced dairy products to our troops anywhere, ground troops or ships at sea,’ he says.’
- ‘More explicitly, the building is an event on the horizon, like a ship at sea, with its assemblage of long white volumes rising out of a dense dark base clad in strips of charcoal-coloured slate.’
- ‘Ever since wooden ships were felled by storms at sea or robbed by pirates, successful businesses risked coming to grief crossing oceans.’
- ‘Rescuers found the craftsman in his boat at sea, unharmed.’
- ‘At the end of the video, the figure sets off in a small boat, apparently lost at sea in an inhospitable universe.’
- ‘White captives taken at sea and spirited away into harems were virtually synonymous with the infamy of the Regency of Algiers, and the subject became a staple of visual representation.’
- ‘The final 7 percent were capable of processing their catch while at sea.’
- ‘Faces of sailors and their lost equipment are scattered throughout the waves, representing the men who died at sea.’
- ‘When the building is lit at night, the glazing disappears, making the naked structure look like a platform at sea.’
1. 1.1Confused or unable to decide what to do.
  ‘he feels at sea with economics’
  ‘Rather you want to throw out a lifeline to the subjects, who are clearly confused and all at sea.’
  ‘As though that were not bad enough, we are now being told that our investment policy, which is momentous to any purposeful economic development, is all at sea.’
  ‘While Kerry were solid enough at the back, they were all at sea at midfield, while they never threatened down the wings and this was the most disappointing aspect of all.’
  ‘This was a striking turnaround for a party that had been all at sea.’
  ‘The gaeltacht side was all at sea (no pun intended) in an opening half dominated by the losers.’
  ‘They are, in a phrase, all at sea and sinking fast.’
  ‘The structuring of the story is sometimes all at sea, but the tone of the show - a kind of loveable gruesomeness - is very appealing.’
  ‘After barely one hundred lines, even the most astute and intrepid explorer is all at sea and gasping for air.’
  ‘She appeared all at sea, with no script but her presence of mind to rely on.’
  ‘She described how the first week they were all at sea, but in the second week they were soaking up the experience like sponges.’

by sea

By means of a ship or ships.
‘other army units were sent by sea’
- ‘And so we went by sea to Lowestoft.’
- ‘Overseas visitors who arrived by sea had different characteristics than overseas visitors who arrived by air.’
- ‘Londoners had been heating their houses with coal since the seventeenth century and this came by sea until the mid-nineteenth century, when the railways took over this trade.’

go to sea

1Set out on a voyage.
‘the fishermen were unable to go to sea in such storms’
- ‘‘The problem has been, when a ship goes to sea, the crew left behind doesn't have a platform to train on,’ said the Information Systems leading chief petty officer.’
- ‘Despite going to sea on a boat with no windows, no fantail, no helipad or even a hatch to allow in some tension-breaking fresh salt air, submariners are still Sailors at heart.’
- ‘This meets the need for a consistent, repeatable and auditable process to assess the ship's material state before it goes to sea.’
- ‘And fishing is more than just ships going to sea, it's all that happens down the industry all the way to the fish market, putting people out of business there.’
- ‘Subject to the following provisions of this section, a crew agreement shall be carried in the ship to which it relates whenever the ship goes to sea.’
- ‘They certainly hooked him on sailing when he was a lad, and he's been going to sea in boats ever since.’
- ‘According to official statistics, there are about 24 pelagic vessels in Namibia, most of which have not been going to sea in the past three seasons following poor catches.’
- ‘Our intrepid reporter goes to sea in pursuit of an edible, ethical and sustainable alternative - our native mackerel’
- ‘It's my desire that when any craft goes to sea, it would be equipped with safety devices,’ the Minister said.’
- ‘It's like the Wise Men of Chelm going to sea with a sieve to collect water.’
- ‘She placed her hand on the pirates shoulder and recalled the words to the prayer her brothers always said before going to sea.’
1. 1.1Become a sailor in a navy or a merchant navy.
  ‘Garret left the small family farm in his late teens and went to sea’
  ‘And sailors going to sea would take a hot cross bun with them to guard against sickness’
  ‘She plans to take over parenting responsibility for her daughter while her husband, who has been working ashore, goes to sea next year.’
  ‘To have a Warrant as opposed to a Commission, as NAM Rodgers tells us, derives from the military and governing classes going to sea and therefore symbolised both a social and professional difference.’
  ‘Even the people who go to sea and have a really bad time health-wise, say it was a good experience and they are looking forward to going to sea later.’
  ‘Women have been going to sea in the RN for 14 years, so the prospect of a female commanding officer of a destroyer or frigate draws ever nearer.’
  ‘I would recommend both to any person who is interested in going to sea or who will soon be reporting aboard that first Navy ship.’
  ‘Phelps, who first went to sea as a cabin boy in 1816, worked from original journals and logbooks now mostly lost.’
  ‘He went to sea as a cabin boy and cook at the age of 9, and from 1880 worked as a fisherman in Cornwall.’
  ‘Their travels grew more exciting as they traveled further every day, as they were welcomed on any ship that went to sea.’
  ‘This notion has undoubtedly partly arisen because of Doctor Johnson's famous observation that going to sea was akin to being in prison, with the added danger of drowning.’
  ‘For the next decade, he went to sea on various voyages, the longest being several years.’

on the sea

Situated on the coast.
- ‘Today I was able to sleep in, and after lunch, I borrowed Bin's car and drove to Narbonne, a town on the sea.’
- ‘Unless we can find a place on the sea, that takes pets, for the same price, we won't be moving.’
- ‘Tulum was not a city but rather an outpost on the sea - it may have been a temple, and some suggest it also may have been an ancient lighthouse.’

put (out) to sea

Leave land on a voyage.
‘the Alabama put to sea the next morning’
- ‘None of the planned projects is offshore, however, although in Europe, where suitable land is scarce, more and more projects are putting out to sea.’
- ‘He puts to sea again and lands at Mytilene, where through Lysimachus and to his intense joy Pericles discovers his daughter.’
- ‘I joined her in Kalkan for a cruise to Olympos, putting out to sea on a glorious October morning, the sun scorching hot on the scrubbed wooden deck and the water as blue as a kingfisher's back.’
- ‘In Camara de Lobos, where Winston Churchill spent his leisure time painting, I watched craggy fishermen putting out to sea in red, yellow and blue-striped boats that dot the horseshoe beach.’
- ‘‘Won't catch me putting out to sea with that berk,’ Dave said.’
- ‘Fishing is still an important activity in the area and one can sit for hours watching fishermen putting out to sea in unfeasibly flimsy wooden craft.’
- ‘Can anyone imagine the Yankee traders of the 19th century allowing OSHA agents to inspect their clipper ships to inform them that their safety precautions for putting out to sea were not up to code?’