gulf

gulf (ɡʌlf)

—n
1.	a large deep bay
2.	a deep chasm
3.	something that divides or separates, such as a lack of understanding
4.	something that engulfs, such as a whirlpool

—vb
5.	(tr) to swallow up; engulf

[C14: from Old French golfe, from Italian golfo, from Greek kolpos]

'gulflike

—*adj*

'gulfy

—*adj*

Gulf (ɡʌlf)

—n
1.	the Persian Gulf
2.	(Austral)
	a. the Gulf of Carpentaria
	b. (modifier) of, relating to, or adjoining the Gulf: Gulf country
3.	(NZ) the Hauraki Gulf

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline

Word Origin & History

gulf

c.1300, from O.Fr. golfe "a gulf, whirlpool," from It. golfo "a gulf, a bay," from L.L. colfos, from Gk. kolpos "bay, gulf," earlier "trough between waves, fold of a garment," originally "bosom," the common notion being "curved shape," from PIE *qwelp- "to vault" (cf. O.E. hwealf, a-hwielfan "to overwhelm").

Latin sinus underwent the same development, being used first for "bosom," later for "gulf." Replaced O.E. sæ-earm. Figurative sense of "a wide interval" is from 1557. The Gulf Stream (1775) takes its name from the Gulf of Mexico.

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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American Heritage

Science Dictionary

gulf

(gŭlf) Pronunciation Key
A large body of ocean or sea water that is partly surrounded by land.

Slang Dictionary

gulf definition

n.
heroin from the Persian Gulf region. (Drugs.) : Those pushers can call anything gulf. How does anybody know where it's from?

Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition.
Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
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Example sentences

It can bridge the gulf between empirical fact and intuitive insight.

He set out to plug the gap, specifically seeking evidence of a spawning ground

of jumbo squid in the gulf.

Key to the gulf's productivity are its marshes, the nurseries of the sea.

There seems, as is often the case in colleges, to be a huge gulf between

academia and reality.

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Gulf States Gulf Stream Gulf Stream system Izmir Lepanto San Blas

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Matching Quote

"The presence of the blacks is the greatest evil that threatens the United States. They increase, in the Gulf States, faster than do the whites. They cannot be kept for ever in slavery, since the tendencies of the modern world run strongly the other way. They cannot be absorbed into the white population, for the whites will not intermarry with them, not even in the North where they have been free for two generations. Once freed, they would be more dangerous than now, because they would not long submit to be debarred from political rights. A terrible struggle would ensue."

-James Bryce