▪ I. dune
(djuːn)
[a. mod.F. dune (13th c. in Hatz.-Darm.), a. ODu. dûna, MDu. dûne (Du. duin, mod.LG. düne) = OE. d{uacu}n: see down n.1]
a. A mound, ridge, or hill of drifted sand on the sea-coast (or, rarely, on the border of a lake or river); applied esp. to the great sand-hills on the coast of France and the Netherlands, but used more widely of any mound of drifted sand; also, a similar ridge or mound of clay formed by the action of wind. In earlier English use, down occurs: see down n.1 3.
| 1790 Roy in Phil. Trans. LXXX. 184 Supposing the extremities of the base between Fort Revers and the Dunes to be accurately known. 1830–33 Lyell Princ. Geol. xxi. (1847) 312 By the aid of embankments and the sand dunes of the coast. 1832 H. T. De la Beche Geol. Man. (ed. 2) 79 Indurated dunes occur in various parts of the world: they have been noticed by Peron in New Holland. 1855 Longfellow Hiaw. xvi. 10 On the dunes of Nagow Wudjoo..Stood the lodge of Pau-Puk-Keewis. 1878 K. Johnston Africa ii. 23 The Sahara presents now a stretch of sand, then hills and ravines, Marshes and dunes. 1879 Encycl. Brit. X. 266/1 Captain Sturt found vast deserts of sand in the interior of Australia, with long lines of dunes 200 feet high. 1883 Symonds Italian Byways vii. 222 A handful of horned poppies from the dunes. 1909 Jrnl. Geol. XVII. 754 These ‘clay dunes’ were almost always associated with a lagoon. 1926 T. E. Lawrence Seven Pillars iv. xliv. 256 The ground was flat and featureless till five o'clock, when we..found ourselves..amid sand-hills coated slenderly with tamarisk... The bushes and the dunes broke the wind. 1944 A. Holmes Princ. Physical Geol. xiii. 264 One of the most remarkable features of desert dunes is their apparent power of collecting all the sand in their neighbourhood. 1961 Jrnl. Sedimentary Petrol. XXXI. 246/2 Clay dunes are..limited to the shores of clay-floored saline playas and tidal mud flats. 1963 Ibid. XXXIII. 766/2 The eolian particles become fixed in the dune when the clay regains moisture from the air or from rain. |
b. attrib. and
Comb., as
dune-like adj.;
dune-bedding (see
quot. 1940);
dune buggy orig. U.S. = beach buggy s.v. beach n. 4;
dune sand, sand formed into dunes by the wind;
dune-slack = slack n.1 2.
| 1940 Chambers's Techn. Dict. 271/2 *Dune bedding, that type of current bedding commonly exhibited by sand dunes and interpreted in sandstones as evidence of desert conditions. 1946 L. D. Stamp Brit. Struct. & Scenery xxii. 229 The Permian Mauchline Sandstones..are believed to represent desert sand-dunes for they exhibit dune-bedding on a huge scale. |
| 1965 Hot Rod Apr. 75/1 (caption), With front wheels on ground for a change, *dune-buggy gets a once-over from owner. 1969 Daily Tel. (Colour Suppl.) 17 Oct. 57/1 To date, 137 independent manufacturers and distributors are shoving Dunebuggies on to the American asphalt as fast as nuts can be spun on bolts. 1976 National Observer (U.S.) 22 May 18/2 Visitors can rent a dune buggy, pack a picnic lunch, and spend several days exploring the mountains and beaches of Mahe. |
| 1853 Kane Grinnell Exp. xxxi. (1856) 270 Rolling *dune-like hills. |
| 1792 A. Young Trav. France 74 Mons. le Brun has an improvement on the Dunes, which he very obligingly shewed me. Between the town and that place are..one or two fields inclosed of most wretched blowing *dune sand. 1916 Jrnl. Geol. XXIV. 242 Red dune sands are exceptional rather than the rule in the desert regions of today. 1967 Oceanogr. & Marine Biol. V. 132 So far as the various environments along the shore are concerned, beach sands and dune sands have been distinguished by several authors. |
| 1938 Nature 7 May 817/2 The parallel ridges often rest on a relatively impermeable substratum, and the water, of which the dune ridges are the catchment area, drains into the intervening hollows and sometimes forms what are known as ‘*dune slacks’... The dune slacks are the especial home of the bog pimpernel. 1964 V. J. Chapman Coastal Vegetation vi. 152 Most of the species to be found in dune slacks are common or reasonably common. |
▪ II. dune obs. f. din,
down,
dun n.3